Datadog
Heroku
| Feature | Datadog | Heroku |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free / from $15/mo | From $5/mo |
| Free Plan | ✓ Yes | ✗ No |
| Rating | 4.5 / 5 | 4 / 5 |
| Best For | devops-teams, sre-teams, cloud-native-companies, enterprises | startups, prototyping, small-teams, ruby-python-node-developers |
| Founded | 2010 | 2007 |
| Infrastructure Monitoring | ✓ | ✗ |
| Apm | ✓ | ✗ |
| Log Management | ✓ | ✗ |
| Synthetics | ✓ | ✗ |
| Real User Monitoring | ✓ | ✗ |
| Security Monitoring | ✓ | ✗ |
| Dashboards | ✓ | ✗ |
| Alerting | ✓ | ✗ |
| Git Deploy | ✗ | ✓ |
| Managed Postgres | ✗ | ✓ |
| Managed Redis | ✗ | ✓ |
| Add Ons | ✗ | ✓ |
| Review Apps | ✗ | ✓ |
| Pipelines | ✗ | ✓ |
| Auto Scaling | ✗ | ✓ |
✓ Datadog Pros
- Unified platform for metrics, traces, logs, and security
- 750+ integrations with cloud services and tools
- Powerful dashboards and alerting system
- AI-powered anomaly detection
✗ Datadog Cons
- Per-host pricing becomes expensive at scale
- Complex pricing with many add-ons
- Data ingestion costs can be unpredictable
✓ Heroku Pros
- Simplest deployment experience (git push to deploy)
- Extensive add-on marketplace for databases and services
- Great for prototyping and MVPs
- Managed Postgres and Redis included
✗ Heroku Cons
- Removed free tier in 2022
- Expensive for production workloads at scale
- Limited infrastructure customization
The Verdict
Datadog is built for devops teams and sre teams, with a focus on infrastructure-monitoring and apm. Heroku targets startups and prototyping and leads with git-deploy and managed-postgres.
On pricing, Heroku is the clear winner for budget-conscious users — starting at $5/mo compared to $15/mo for Datadog. That $10/mo difference adds up quickly for growing teams.
Datadog has a free plan, which gives it a meaningful edge for individuals and small teams exploring their options. Heroku requires a paid subscription from day one.
Datadog edges out on user ratings (4.5 vs 4). While both are well-regarded, that gap reflects real differences in user satisfaction worth considering.
Feature-wise, Datadog offers broader built-in capabilities (8 features vs 7), while Heroku takes a more focused approach — which can mean a simpler, faster onboarding experience.
Bottom line: Datadog has a slight overall edge — but if simplest deployment experience (git push to deploy) matters most to you, Heroku may still be the right call.