Grafana Faro vs Datadog Mobile RUM

Grafana Faro8.6Visit Datadog Mobile RUM8.5Visit

Higher score Grafana Faro #6 in Real User Monitoring 8.6/10 Free plan Free plan✓ 4 of 5 features Visit Grafana Faro

vs

Datadog Mobile RUM #7 in Real User Monitoring 8.5/10 14-day trial Free trial✓ 4 of 5 features Visit Datadog

• Grafana Faro fits best

  Open-source-minded web RUM teams

• Datadog Mobile RUM fits best

  Mobile teams already using Datadog

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Side by side

Feature	Grafana Faro 8.6/10 Visit ↗	Datadog Mobile RUM 8.5/10 Visit ↗
At a glance
Editor score	8.6	8.5
Ranking	#6 in Real User Monitoring	#7 in Real User Monitoring
Best for	Open-source-minded web RUM teams	Mobile teams already using Datadog
Pricing model	Free plan + paid	Paid
Starting price	$19/mo	$0.15/unit/mo
Free plan	✓ (best)	—
Free trial	—	14 days
Deployment	Cloud, Self-hosted	Cloud, Mobile
Platforms	Web	iOS, Android
Support	Email, Community, Docs	Email, Live chat, Community, Docs
Integrations	6 integrations	6 integrations
Built for	Small business, Mid-market, Enterprise	Small business, Mid-market, Enterprise
Features Grafana Faro 4/5 · Datadog Mobile RUM 4/5
Core Web Vitals	✓ (best)	Not checked yet
Mobile app monitoring	Not checked yet	✓ (best)
Interaction tracking	✓	✓
Geographic breakdown	✓	✓
Error correlation	✓	✓
Specs
Data retention	30 days	90+ days
Pricing metric	Sessions	Sessions
Our review
Pros	Free plan includes up to 50k sessions per month Tracks Web Vitals, errors, interactions, geography, and sessions Connects frontend telemetry with Grafana and OpenTelemetry tools	Tracks crashes, vitals, interactions, geography, and releases Correlates mobile issues with traces, logs, metrics, and tests Offers session replay with privacy masking by default
Cons	Web-focused rather than native mobile monitoring Free plan includes community support only Published retention period is 30 days	No free plan; paid access starts at $0.15 per 1,000 sessions Advanced investigation features cost more than measurement Focused on mobile RUM rather than web RUM
Our verdict	Grafana Faro is an open-source JavaScript SDK for real user monitoring in browser-based applications. It is designed for developers, DevOps teams, and SREs that need frontend performance, error, interaction, session, and trace data. Faro… Read the review →	Datadog Mobile RUM gives teams visibility into the performance, stability, usage, and user experience of native and cross-platform mobile applications. It captures sessions, performance vitals, crashes, errors, interactions, geographic… Read the review →

Strengths and trade-offs

• Grafana Faro — where it wins

  • Free plan includes up to 50k sessions per month
  • Tracks Web Vitals, errors, interactions, geography, and sessions
  • Connects frontend telemetry with Grafana and OpenTelemetry tools

  Where it doesn't

  • Web-focused rather than native mobile monitoring
  • Free plan includes community support only
  • Published retention period is 30 days

• Datadog Mobile RUM — where it wins

  • Tracks crashes, vitals, interactions, geography, and releases
  • Correlates mobile issues with traces, logs, metrics, and tests
  • Offers session replay with privacy masking by default

  Where it doesn't

  • No free plan; paid access starts at $0.15 per 1,000 sessions
  • Advanced investigation features cost more than measurement
  • Focused on mobile RUM rather than web RUM

• Grafana Faro8.6/10 · Free plan

  A flexible web RUM SDK with free usage, Grafana integrations, and self-hosted deployment.

  Visit Grafana FaroFull verdict →
• Datadog Mobile RUM8.5/10 · 14-day trial

  A strong mobile RUM choice for Datadog teams that need deep session and crash visibility.

  Visit DatadogFull verdict →