Datadog vs Viavi Observer Platform comparison

Datadog and Viavi Solutions are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Datadog is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.7, while Viavi Solutions is ranked #91. Datadog holds a 3.1% mindshare in NMS, compared to Viavi Solutions’s 0.2% mindshare. Additionally, 97% of Datadog users are willing to recommend the solution.

Datadog

Read 203 Datadog reviews

23,433 Views
4,452 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

Viavi Observer Platform

Read 1 Viavi Observer Platform review

320 Views
320 Comparison Views

0% willing to recommend

Datadog

Viavi Observer Platform

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 13, 2025

Datadog and Viavi Observer Platform both operate in the application and network monitoring space. Datadog holds an advantage in scalability with its cloud-based model, while Viavi's strength is in detailed network analysis.

Features: Datadog offers robust integration with cloud services, real-time monitoring, and analytics. Its comprehensive dashboard and alerting system enhance usability. Viavi Observer Platform specializes in deep packet inspection and delivers extensive network performance insights. Advanced network troubleshooting is a distinct benefit of Viavi's platform.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Viavi Observer Platform uses a traditional on-premise deployment, which can be complex but allows for deeper network management. Datadog's cloud-based approach simplifies deployment and increases accessibility. Datadog is well-regarded for its rapid customer support, while Viavi provides dedicated specialists for network analysis.

Pricing and ROI: Datadog is considered flexible, featuring a lower initial setup cost attractive to businesses looking for rapid implementation. Viavi Observer Platform's comprehensive feature set justifies its higher pricing for those focusing on network performance. Datadog offers competitive ROI through scalability and integration, whereas Viavi's advanced tools boost ROI for intensive network management needs.

To learn more, read our detailed Network Monitoring Software Report (Updated: October 2025).

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Network Monitoring Software

October 2025

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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

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

203

Ranking in other categories

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (1st), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (3rd), Log Management (4th), Container Monitoring (2nd), Cloud Monitoring Software (2nd), AIOps (1st), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (6th)

Viavi Observer Platform

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

91st

Average Rating

0.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

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 Viavi Observer Platform is 0.2%, up from 0.2% 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%
Viavi Observer Platform	0.2%
Other	96.7%

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.

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JeroenDubbelman

Director at Bitrate

The product is extremely valuable and provides a lot of functionalities and visibility to organizations

The score-based application performance ratings help the network team. Often, customers have a siloed environment for security, applications, and servers. The network team is always asked to do troubleshooting. Being able to know how well an application worked in the past and what's happening today is really helpful. If someone has a complaint and the network team says that the problem is not on their side, they must be able to demonstrate it accurately. The network team is often given the least budget and the least number of employees. So, they must be able to troubleshoot and pinpoint problems as fast as possible. If it’s a network issue, they must fix it. However, if it is a cloud problem, an ISP problem, or a problem within the server or application environment, they must be able to demonstrate it clearly. It is the real benefit they get from the solution. Some of our customers are financial institutions. They use the tool for traffic accounting, especially when they get charged by ISPs or carriers for the amount of traffic they are using. In South Africa, we have banks that pay the service providers to allow customers to use their banking apps for free. The bank pays for it, not the customers. So, they need to compare to ensure they are paying for what has been used. Viavi enables them to do that. It is pretty much the best there is in the world. There is nothing to beat it. The product is extremely valuable and provides a lot of functionalities. It's really impressive.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The dashboards and the performance of the software have been great."

"The most valuable features are logging, the extensive set of integrations, and easy jumpstart."

"Overall, the Data UI and the usability of customer features continue to improve."

"Anything I've wanted to do, I found a way to get it done through Datadog."

"The ease with which we can filter, use metrics, and give accounts to customers, then let the customer filter, set up metrics, and alerts. This has been a big win for us."

"The most valuable feature of Datadog is its logs."

"Datadog's log aggregation is really helpful since it lets me and every other engineer on my team login, view, and share logs when we need to debug our application."

"Datadog's ability to group and visualize the servers and the data makes it relatively easy for the root cause analysis."

More Datadog pros

"The score-based application performance ratings help the network team."

Cons

"Logging is not a great experience."

"I love to have some DD guru come in and do a department training directly at our setup."

"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 ability to find what you are looking for when starting out could be improved."

"It can have an artificial intelligence component. Even though I can seamlessly look at end-to-end security, it would be better to have alerts and notifications powered by an AI engine. I am not sure if they have an AI component. We have not reached out to them or looked at it, but this is something that I keep on talking about within our company in terms of features. Such a feature would be good to have, and it would further optimize my Security Ops team's abilities."

"There are some areas on log filtering screens where the user interface can take some getting used to."

"We would like to see some versioning system for the Synthetic Tests so that we could have a backup of our tests since they are time-consuming to make and very easy to damage in a moment of error."

"If there were a more cost-effective manner of deploying the tool, we'd be more likely to adopt it more widely."

More Datadog cons

"The product must start using a bit more machine learning and AI, especially for security."

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"Pricing seems reasonable. It depends on the size of your organization, the size of your infrastructure, and what portion of your overall business costs go toward infrastructure."

"Pricing is somewhat affordable compared to other solutions but in order to really lower the costs of other products you need to plan very carefully your resources usage, otherwise, it can get expensive real quick."

"I am not satisfied with its licensing. Its payment is based on the exported data, and there was an explosion of the data for three or four weeks. My customer was not alerted, and there was no way for them to see that there has been an explosion of data. They got a big invoice for one or two months. The pricing model of Datadog is based on the data. The customer was quite surprised about not being alerted about this explosion of data. They should provide some kind of alert when there is an increase in usage."

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

"Licensing is based on the retention period of logs and metrics."

"The price of Datadog is reasonable. Other solutions are more expensive, such as AppDynamics."

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

More Datadog pricing and cost advice

"The tool is very pricey."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

15%

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

Retailer

Financial Services Firm

20%

Manufacturing Company

13%

Computer Software Company

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	80
Midsize Enterprise	46
Large Enterprise	93

No data available

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 ...

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What do you like most about Viavi Observer Platform?

The score-based application performance ratings help the network team.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Viavi Observer Platform?

The tool is very pricey. It is a challenge. I rate the pricing a ten out of ten.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Viavi Observer Platform?

Customers must understand what Viavi offers. The product offers so much value that it hasn’t been able to demonstrate it to the customers. The product must start using a bit more machine learning a...

See all answers

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Compared 11% of the time

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Product Reports

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Datadog

October 2025

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Network Monitoring Software

October 2025

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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

Viavi Observer Platform offers comprehensive network performance and monitoring solutions designed to meet the demanding needs of enterprises, with technologies that ensure efficient handling of network and application performance data.

Known for its robust offering, Viavi Observer Platform provides insightful analytics that allow businesses to have a detailed grasp of their network performance, focusing on real-time data visibility and deep packet inspection. Its ability to isolate communication issues and determine root causes quickly makes it essential for IT professionals looking to maintain high network efficiency and reliability.

What are the most important features of Viavi Observer Platform?

Packet Capture: Enables retrieval and analysis of detailed network packet data to diagnose problems.
Real-time Analytics: Provides instantaneous insights into network performance, facilitating rapid issue resolution.
Application Monitoring: Strengthens performance by tracking application behaviors and troubleshooting.
Customized Dashboards: Offers tailored views of key performance metrics for ease of access and monitoring.

What benefits or ROI should users consider?

Improved Network Efficiency: Streamlined diagnostics lead to optimal network operation.
Cost Reduction: Faster issue resolution reduces downtime and associated costs.
Enhanced Security: Comprehensive data visibility assists in identifying and mitigating security threats promptly.
Scalability: Adapts to growing network demands, ensuring consistent performance as businesses expand.

Viavi Observer Platform is particularly beneficial in industries such as finance and healthcare, where zero-tolerance for network latency and security breaches is crucial. Its strategic deployment in these sectors ensures uninterrupted service delivery and protects sensitive information.

Viavi Solutions

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

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