Datadog vs FortiMonitor comparison

Datadog and Fortinet are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Datadog is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.7, while Fortinet is ranked #21 with an average rating of 8.7. Datadog holds a 3.1% mindshare in NMS, compared to Fortinet’s 0.8% mindshare. Additionally, 97% of Datadog users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Fortinet users who would recommend it.

Datadog

Read 200 Datadog reviews

23,433 Views
4,452 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

FortiMonitor

Read 15 FortiMonitor reviews

1,548 Views
1,238 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Datadog

FortiMonitor

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 13, 2025

Datadog and FortiMonitor are competing products in IT performance monitoring. Datadog appears to have the upper hand with its effective feature set, while FortiMonitor is valued for its integrated functionality.

Features: Datadog includes real-time analytics, extensive integrations, and an alerting system, offering deep visibility across infrastructures. FortiMonitor specializes in network monitoring and security with strengths in threat detection and unified IT environment monitoring.

Room for Improvement: Datadog could enhance its log management and detailed PHP APM analysis. Its user-friendliness, while strong, can still be improved. FortiMonitor might benefit from faster adaptation to emerging vendors, streamlining initial setups, and expanding beyond current security features.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Datadog offers simple cloud-based deployment and responsive support. FortiMonitor provides comprehensive support but may need more initial adjustments. Datadog's speed of deployment suits rapid integration needs, while FortiMonitor offers tailored customer assistance.

Pricing and ROI: Datadog uses a scalable pricing model, considered cost-effective for extensive monitoring. FortiMonitor's pricing is competitive with value in security features. Datadog generally offers better long-term ROI due to flexibility, while FortiMonitor provides significant value in network monitoring specialization.

To learn more, read our detailed Datadog vs. FortiMonitor Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Datadog vs. FortiMonitor

September 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 869,952 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Datadog

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

4th

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

3rd

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

200

Ranking in other categories

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (1st), Log Management (4th), Container Monitoring (2nd), Cloud Monitoring Software (2nd), AIOps (1st), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (6th)

FortiMonitor

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

21st

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

22nd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

IT Alerting and Incident Management (9th), Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM) (7th)

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Datadog is 3.1%, down from 3.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of FortiMonitor is 0.8%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Datadog	3.1%
FortiMonitor	0.8%
Other	96.1%

Network Monitoring Software

Featured Reviews

Prakash Pandey

IT Manager at Liberty Mutual Insurance

Has improved monitoring accuracy and enabled faster issue resolution through detailed alerting and transaction visibility

The best feature that Datadog offers is infrastructure monitoring, where it can look at the CPU utilization, different process utilization, all the processes which are running, and alert us in advance if things are going beyond normal threshold. I think everything about the features of Datadog is amazing. Datadog provides details up to the transactions. We can look at the transaction log too for the application, which is really helpful. Datadog has impacted our organization positively since we were previously using AppDynamics and then we switched to Datadog. It has improved a lot in our alerting and monitoring in the infrastructure space and application space. We can monitor business transactions and take proactive action. It is really great to take actions on the issues before an end user reports it, which is a great advantage for us.

Read full review

JaimeVasquez

Commercial Manager at IT-Experience

Monitoring capabilities keep operations running smoothly and alerts enhance proactive system management

We use FortiMonitor to monitor the infrastructure of our customers. We check on what is happening with their operations, monitor bandwidth, ensure configurations are appropriate for the customer, and identify if anything is going wrong The most valuable features of FortiMonitor are its redundancy…

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"I have found the logging and tracing features the most valuable."

"Having a wealth of information has helped us investigate outages, and having historical data helps us tune our system."

"Sometimes it's more user friendly for development teams. There are some parts of Datadog that are more understandable for development teams. For example, the APM in Datadog works more manually and works like the tools in New Relic or Grafana, or Elastic. It is easier to understand for software development teams."

"The best way it has helped us is by consolidating all our logs into a single place and making it easier to find errors."

"Datadog has clear dashboards and good documentation."

"Customizable views as well as the ability to "dive in" when we see someting anomalous has improved the workflow for handling incidents."

"The service catalog helped improve our organization by giving a good view of the flow for our microservices applications."

"The solution is useful for monitoring logs."

More Datadog pros

"Overall, I would recommend FortiMonitor to others."

"FortiMonitor offers comprehensive monitoring capabilities, allowing me to track network traffic in and out effectively."

"In FortiMonitor, we're linked up with our Netgear, CactusServer, and NOC. It's really valuable because everything's migrating to one dashboard for us system engineers. We can keep an eye on traffic, blocked sites, and the health of our hardware. That last part, about knowing if something's going to fail soon, is super important. It gives us time to sort things out before any big problems happen. As a system engineer, I need to keep tabs on everything – temperature, monitoring systems, and network operations. This data is really handy because it helps me ensure our site runs smoothly, whether it's turning systems on or off. Just last night, there was a system failure, but thanks to real-time monitoring, I quickly identified the problem and got the necessary replacement parts."

"FortiMonitor is 100% stable."

"The solution helps to see client infrastructure. It has many boxes and blinks green or red when the station goes up or down. We have different domains for the device groups that we monitor."

"The most valuable feature of FortiMonitor is user monitoring. We are able to see if the user is following the policy or not from their system. Additionally, the solution integrates well with Fortinet FortiGate and has centralized management."

"The tool continuously improves, adapting to support new vendors and technologies. Importantly, it automates the process, triggering alerts when devices require attention, and eliminating the need for manual intervention."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is what the devices are used for. We have big backups for our Cradlepoint solutions, but FortiMonitor is a great routing device and we love working with them."

More FortiMonitor pros

Cons

"We would like to see smaller or shorter tutorials and video sessions."

"The error traceability is an area that can be improved."

"One area where I was really looking for improvement was the CSPM product line. I had really wanted to have team-level visibility for findings, since the team managing the resources has much more context and ability to resolve the issue, as the service owner. However, this has been added to the announcement in a recent keynote."

"There should be a clearer view of the expenses."

"Datadog is too pricey when compared to its competitors, and this is something that its always on my mind during the decision-making process."

"We would love to see a % consumed and alert us if we are over budget before getting an overage charge 20 days into the month."

"The pricing should be less of a surprise."

"The query performance could be improved, particularly when handling large datasets, as slower response times can hinder efficiency."

More Datadog cons

"We use FortiToken, and it's a pain to use because you have to send things through your phone and then confirm by email. Only after this can you log in. It's dual-factor authentication. I wish that I could just log in or bring up a dashboard where I could log in from."

"There are no AI features in FortiMonitor, which might be an area for enhancement."

"FortiMonitor's monitoring could be much better. It should be like, in Palo Alto."

"I think the current features are really good for me, nothing else comes to mind right now. Maybe some small improvements could be made in the customization and configuration part of the UI to make it easier or more intuitive. Customizable UI options, like we saw in the demo, could be helpful for everyone. But in our operational environment, having clear health status and system details is crucial for us system engineers. One feature I'd really like to see is a credential management system. It would help us keep track of who's logged in and how many times, which is important due to user restrictions. Sometimes, we need to manage logins more efficiently, like logging off other users to free up credentials. So having a feature like that would be really helpful."

"Sometimes, during high CPU usage, we cannot access FortiMonitor and must refresh it."

"Additionally, there are no AI features in FortiMonitor, which might be an area for enhancement."

"The tool's price in Vietnam is high, making it an area of concern where improvements can be made."

"There is room for improvement in the FortiMonitor report. It is not ideal for showcasing to tech customers or managers, especially when trying to display high CPU usage from logins within a specific range of months or the most recent month."

More FortiMonitor cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"This solution is budget friendly."

"The price is better than some competing products."

"It didn't scale well from the cost perspective. We had a custom package deal."

"If you do your homework, you'll find that if you're really concerned with cost, it's good."

"It has always scaled for us. Cost scales up too, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. It's reasonable for what they're providing."

"The cost is high and this can be justified if the scale of the environment is big."

"It costs the same amount it would if we were hosting it ourselves, so we are incredibly happy with the cost."

"Sometimes it's very hard to project how much it will cost for the monthly subscription for the next month when you add certain features. Having better visibility of the cost would give a better experience."

More Datadog pricing and cost advice

"FortiMonitor's price is very high."

"Compared to other solutions, FortiMonitor is a very expensive solution."

"The price of FortiMonitor is approximately $200 annually for 225 users. The price is competitive."

"There are additional costs needed for certain functionality, such as scalability."

"The tool's pricing model in Vietnam is a bit high. I rate the product price as an eight out of ten."

"In terms of licensing, while it may not be the most expensive option on the market, it's relatively cost-effective. You can obtain licenses at a lower cost, with the calculation being straightforward. For example, if you onboard around 5,000 devices, you'll need approximately 5,000 licenses, as each device typically counts as one license."

"On a scale from one to ten, I rate the pricing a nine since it is a good solution that is available at a cheap price."

"We have a large customer base for Fortinet, and the additional buying power got us really great discounts."

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Network Monitoring Software solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

869,952 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

15%

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

Retailer

Computer Software Company

26%

Manufacturing Company

Healthcare Company

Retailer

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	80
Midsize Enterprise	46
Large Enterprise	91

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	8
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	6

Questions from the Community

Any advice about APM solutions?

There are many factors and we know little about your requirements (size of org, technology stack, management systems, the scope of implementation). Our goal was to consolidate APM and infra monitor...

See all answers

Datadog vs ELK: which one is good in terms of performance, cost and efficiency?

With Datadog, we have near-live visibility across our entire platform. We have seen APM metrics impacted several times lately using the dashboards we have created with Datadog; they are very good c...

See all answers

Which would you choose - Datadog or Dynatrace?

Our organization ran comparison tests to determine whether the Datadog or Dynatrace network monitoring software was the better fit for us. We decided to go with Dynatrace. Dynatrace offers network ...

See all answers

What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?

I have a clear bias because I work for Panopta. We aren't a fit for everyone, but I can confirm that Panopta is a lot less work to stand up and maintain. It's also a lot easier to use and onboard n...

See all answers

What do you like most about FortiMonitor?

In FortiMonitor, we're linked up with our Netgear, CactusServer, and NOC. It's really valuable because everything's migrating to one dashboard for us system engineers. We can keep an eye on traffic...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for FortiMonitor?

FortiMonitor does save time but not significantly on costs, as there are still expenses related to procurement, installation, and licensing.

See all answers

Comparisons

Dynatrace vs Datadog

Compared 11% of the time

Azure Monitor vs Datadog

Compared 7% of the time

Splunk Enterprise Security vs Datadog

Compared 4% of the time

New Relic vs Datadog

Compared 4% of the time

AWS X-Ray vs Datadog

Compared 4% of the time

More Datadog Competitors

ThousandEyes vs FortiMonitor

Compared 26% of the time

Zabbix vs FortiMonitor

Compared 15% of the time

SolarWinds Network Device Monitor vs FortiMonitor

Compared 12% of the time

PRTG Network Monitor vs FortiMonitor

Compared 12% of the time

SolarWinds NPM vs FortiMonitor

Compared 6% of the time

More FortiMonitor Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Datadog

October 2025

Download Datadog product report

Buyer's Guide

Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM)

September 2025

Download FortiMonitor product report

Also Known As

No data available

Panopta

Overview

Datadog integrates extensive monitoring solutions with features like customizable dashboards and real-time alerting, supporting efficient system management. Its seamless integration capabilities with tools like AWS and Slack make it a critical part of cloud infrastructure monitoring.

Datadog offers centralized logging and monitoring, making troubleshooting fast and efficient. It facilitates performance tracking in cloud environments such as AWS and Azure, utilizing tools like EC2 and APM for service management. Custom metrics and alerts improve the ability to respond to issues swiftly, while real-time tools enhance system responsiveness. However, users express the need for improved query performance, a more intuitive UI, and increased integration capabilities. Concerns about the pricing model's complexity have led to calls for greater transparency and control, and additional advanced customization options are sought. Datadog's implementation requires attention to these aspects, with enhanced documentation and onboarding recommended to reduce the learning curve.

What are Datadog's Key Features?

Sharable Dashboards: Facilitate collaboration with customizable, intuitive dashboards.
Extensive Integrations: Seamlessly connects with tools like Slack and AWS to support workflows.
APM and RUM: Provides deep insights into application performance and user interactions.
Real-Time Tools: Enables agile responses to system issues with real-time monitoring.
Unified Tagging and Visualization: Eases management of complex systems with simplified visualization.

What Benefits and ROI Should Users Look For?

Efficient Troubleshooting: Centralized logging speeds up the identification and resolution of issues.
Streamlined Workflows: Integrations with popular tools enhance operational efficiency.
Improved Observability: Comprehensive monitoring improves system reliability and performance.
Resource Optimization: Efficient microservices and container management leads to better cloud resource utilization.
Responsive Alerts: Customizable alerts ensure timely identification of critical issues.

In industries like finance and technology, Datadog is implemented for its monitoring capabilities across cloud architectures. Its ability to aggregate logs and provide a unified view enhances reliability in environments demanding high performance. By leveraging real-time insights and integration with platforms like AWS and Azure, organizations in these sectors efficiently manage their cloud infrastructures, ensuring optimal performance and proactive issue resolution.

Datadog

FortiMonitor is a comprehensive, SaaS-based digital experience monitoring (DEM) platform that helps organizations modernize their performance-monitoring tools. It provides visibility into endpoint application performance and digital experience—no matter where the user resides or where the application is hosted.

Fortinet

Sample Customers

Adobe, Samsung, facebook, HP Cloud Services, Electronic Arts, salesforce, Stanford University, CiTRIX, Chef, zendesk, Hearst Magazines, Spotify, mercardo libre, Slashdot, Ziff Davis, PBS, MLS, The Motley Fool, Politico, Barneby's

SONY, GoDaddy, HCL, ING, ARMOR, billboard

Buyer's Guide

Datadog vs. FortiMonitor

September 2025

Free Report: Datadog vs. FortiMonitor

Find out what your peers are saying about Datadog vs. FortiMonitor and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

869,952 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Datadog vs. FortiMonitor report.

See our list of best Network Monitoring Software vendors and best IT Infrastructure Monitoring vendors.

We monitor all Network Monitoring Software reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.