The Problem
Why teams leave Datadog
Usage-based pricing makes costs unpredictable
Multiple products each have separate per-host pricing
Log management costs scale exponentially with volume
Custom metrics have per-metric pricing
Vendor lock-in through proprietary query language
Bills frequently exceed estimates by 2-5x
What We Build Instead
Your custom devops & engineering tool
Observability platform on your infrastructure
Metrics, logs, and traces in one system
Custom dashboards and alerting
APM with distributed tracing
Log aggregation with predictable storage costs
No per-host or per-metric pricing — just your infrastructure cost
The Math
Datadog vs. custom build
Based on 50 seats at $31/seat/month, with ~10% annual SaaS price increases.
Keep paying Datadog
Build with 86 SaaS
3-year savings with 50 seats
-$18,370
-30% less than Datadog
Pricing Breakdown
Datadog tier pricing vs. one-time custom build
Compare what you pay per seat across Datadog's tiers against a single investment in software you own forever.
| Tier | Monthly/Seat | Annual/Seat | Key Features |
|---|---|---|---|
| Infrastructure Pro | $15/mo | $15/mo | Per-host metrics, 750+ integrations, 15-month retention, Containers & serverless |
| APM | $31/mo | $31/mo | Application tracing, Distributed tracing, Error tracking, Profiling |
| Log Management | $2/mo | $2/mo | Per-GB ingestion pricing, Log pipeline, Log-to-metrics, Archive and rehydrate |
| Enterprise | $35/mo | $35/mo | All products bundled, Custom metrics, SLO monitoring, Watchdog AI alerts |
| Custom Build by 86 SaaS | $40,000–$70,000 one-time | $0/seat | Unlimited users, full ownership, no recurring fees |
Migration Timeline
From Datadog to ownership — week by week
A structured migration plan to move off Datadog in 10-16 weeks with zero downtime.
Discovery & Audit
2 weeksAudit current monitoring stack, dashboards, alerts, and data volumes
Architecture & Design
2-3 weeksDesign observability platform with metrics, logs, traces architecture
Core Development
5-8 weeksBuild metrics collection, log aggregation, APM, dashboards, and alerting
Data Migration & Testing
1-2 weeksDeploy agents, migrate dashboards and alerts, validate monitoring coverage
Deployment & Training
1-2 weeksRoll out monitoring platform and train ops and dev teams
Total build time
10-16 weeks
Feature Comparison
What you keep, what you skip, and why
A transparent comparison of Datadog features vs. your custom-built alternative.
| Feature | Datadog | Custom Build | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Infrastructure Metrics | |||
| Application Performance Monitoring | |||
| Log Management | |||
| Distributed Tracing | |||
| Custom Dashboards | |||
| Alerting & Notifications | |||
| Synthetic Monitoring | |||
| Container & Kubernetes Monitoring | |||
| Watchdog AI Anomaly Detection | Custom anomaly detection tuned to your baselines | ||
| Predictable Pricing | Infrastructure cost only — no per-host or per-GB pricing |
Your custom build focuses on the features your team actually uses — typically 15-20% of what Datadog offers — built exactly for your workflow.
How It Works
From Datadog to ownership in 10-16 weeks
Free Audit
We analyze your Datadog usage and identify exactly which features your team actually uses.
Scope & Build
We build your custom devops & engineering tool with only the features you need. 10-16 weeks.
Deploy & Migrate
We deploy to your infrastructure, migrate your data from Datadog, and train your team.
You Own It
Full source code, documentation, and optional maintenance retainer. No vendor lock-in. Ever.
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