Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users
reviewer2045022 - PeerSpot reviewer
Software Engineer at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
Great UI and documentation but needs to offer K8s deployment monitoring in real-time
Pros and Cons
  • "The installation step is pretty straightforward."
  • "I'm not sure if Datadog can monitor K8s deployments in real-time. For instance, being able to see a deployment step by step visually. This would be helpful if there were any incidents during the deployment."

What is our primary use case?

We use Datadog to monitor our Kubernetes clusters. 

We have 3 different clusters for different parts of the SDLC. We run the Datadog agent DaemonSet as well as the Datadog cluster agent. Our services have the APM installed by default. 

To create monitors, we use Terraform. This is provided out-of-the-box for our service owner. 

We run EKS on top of K8s, therefore, we also make use of some of the AWS monitoring capabilities that can be integrated into Datadog. 

We are hugely reliant on Datadog for all aspects of our system.

How has it helped my organization?

With Datadog, we were able to gain observability in our system. 

The installation step is pretty straightforward. 

It's easy to use by non-DevOps users. For instance, our engineers do not interact with K8s often; therefore, it is hard for them to debug. However, with Datadog, they are able to view their containers and deployments with a single click. 

We also heavily use the tags to help us identify who the service owners are. This is super useful when we need to track owners for patching or pick up new features we implemented.

What is most valuable?

The APM and K8s monitoring are the most valuable aspects of the solution. The K8s monitoring allows all customers to view their infra, even if they do not use K8s daily. They can just click on a few tabs to get all of the information they need. 

It is also very easy to install on our system. APM has helped debug applications on our system as well. We were able to view why a service has suddenly shut down.

We also use Datadog for SLOs/SLAs as well. We check the live endpoint of services to ensure they are still up and running.

What needs improvement?

There is not much that needs to be improved. 

The UI is super user-friendly. The deployment process is easy. We enjoy using the integrations with Slack and PagerDuty. 

Customer support is awesome from our experience. There is a lot of documentation for us to be able to use if we need to. 

I'm not sure if Datadog can monitor K8s deployments in real-time. For instance, being able to see a deployment step by step visually. This would be helpful if there were any incidents during the deployment. 

In general, Datadog is a great solution.

Buyer's Guide
Datadog
April 2025
Learn what your peers think about Datadog. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2025.
845,712 professionals have used our research since 2012.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used Datadog since I joined my company about a year ago.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We haven't had issues with the stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability is really great.

How are customer service and support?

We've had no issues with the product or support. 

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is super simple, and the documentation was helpful.

What about the implementation team?

We managed the initial setup process in-house.

What was our ROI?

We've witnessed ROI in our DevOps.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Private Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

PeerSpot user
Rich text editor
    reviewer2045010 - PeerSpot reviewer
    Lead Application Developer at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
    Real User
    Good logging and APM and useful for troubleshooting
    Pros and Cons
    • "The most valuable aspect of the solution is the APM."
    • "The logging could be improved in the future."

    What is our primary use case?

    We primarily use the solution for monitoring and log analysis.

    How has it helped my organization?

    Datadog shows all the logs for the services, and it is very useful for troubleshooting.

    What is most valuable?

    The most valuable aspect of the solution is the APM.

    The logging capabilities are quite useful. 

    What needs improvement?

    The logging could be improved in the future. 

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I've used the solution for four years.

    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

    PeerSpot user
    Rich text editor
      Buyer's Guide
      Datadog
      April 2025
      Learn what your peers think about Datadog. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2025.
      845,712 professionals have used our research since 2012.
      reviewer2004192 - PeerSpot reviewer
      Lead Support Engineer at a tech vendor with 11-50 employees
      Real User
      Good centralization of data with good integration but can be overwhelming at first
      Pros and Cons
      • "The integration into AWS is key as well as our software is currently bound to AWS."
      • "The ability to find what you are looking for when starting out could be improved."

      What is our primary use case?

      Our use case is mainly deploying into our applications for monitoring/logging observability. We currently have our microservices feed into an actuator that exists in each instance of our application that extends to a local and central Grafana for client and internal visibility. The application we use is Grafana.

      Logging captures application and system logs that are ported to each application instance for querying.

      Whenever anything occurs that is considered unhealthy from a range of health checks, we have notification rules configured internally and externally for a prompt response time.

      How has it helped my organization?

      We have been able to be a more confident, knowledgeable, and capable team when everything is being ported into a centralized format. Beforehand, knowledge was isolated to individuals. Knowledge in terms of what information represented and where it was led to a lack of confidence. By having everything in one place, rules out that confusion and allows us to respond better to issues.

      It also allows for personal growth as our team is learning the application from the ground up, and each person is enhancing their own skills.

      What is most valuable?

      The valuable features include the following: 

      • We are currently utilizing a decentralized distributed framework for our deployment, including our monitoring/logging observability capabilities. Centralizing them, if contingent on our company privacy guidelines, will be a big help in tracking and responding to issues that come up and have the means to understand the origin of the log management tools that were demonstrated.
      • The ability to fiddle around and manipulate how logs are outputted.
      • The ability to track AWS Lambda functions, Cloudformation, and Cloudwatch allow someone that is not savvy to dip their toe into understanding their own product.
      • The integration into AWS is key as well as our software is currently bound to AWS.

      What needs improvement?

      The ability to find what you are looking for when starting out could be improved. It was a bit overwhelming trying to figure out what is the best solution. It led to many prototypes or time spent just perusing documentation. If we were able to select bundles or template use cases, we would hit the ground running quicker.

      For how long have I used the solution?

      I've used the solution for one year.

      Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

      Private Cloud

      If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

      Amazon Web Services (AWS)
      Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

      PeerSpot user
      Rich text editor
        reviewer2003937 - PeerSpot reviewer
        Cloud Engineer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
        Real User
        Intuitive with high availability and good integrations
        Pros and Cons
        • "The network map is crucial in identifying bottlenecks and determining what needs more attention."
        • "To be very fair, I haven't had enough experience with Datadog to pick out improvements."

        What is our primary use case?

        We are using the solution for scaling up the website for market data applications. EC2 and Datadog have enabled high-level monitoring of underlying infra and services.

        The Datadog profiler comes in handy to pinpoint issues with resource utilization during peak hours, and traces/log management helps narrow down the root cause.

        The network map is crucial in identifying bottlenecks and determining what needs more attention.

        Host map helps identify problematic hardware and devise ways to counter issues that arise during scaling, and deploying solutions on the cloud.

        How has it helped my organization?

        While my team is relatively new to Datadog, I already see immense value in switching over to Datadog as the primary APM and NPM tool.

        The arsenal of features it offers is bound to come in a clutch when facing production issues, and when finding out what went wrong is crucial.

        The network map has helped to figure out the golden signals and optimize the infrastructure.

        The synthetics have helped ensure the high availability of arch functions as intended.

        What is most valuable?

        The network map is useful. With it, we have the ability to see the data flow across the entire network path across all the applications is highly valuable as the data from this service helps identify network bottlenecks, non-performant applications, and bad endpoints.

        This is especially crucial for a high-availability website aimed at market data applications where low latency is crucial.

        The host map gives a clear picture of the entire infrastructure, and the ability to switch between logs, metrics, and traces is very handy when it comes to debugging issues on the fly.

        I love the ability to install the integrations and agents quickly. This is a well-made product.

        What needs improvement?

        To be very fair, I haven't had enough experience with Datadog to pick out improvements.

        My involvement with Datadog has largely been positive. I love the simplicity and intuitiveness it offers - even for nontechnical folks who just might be starting out with developing technical chops in their domain.

        For how long have I used the solution?

        I've used the solution for three years.

        Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

        Hybrid Cloud

        If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

        Amazon Web Services (AWS)
        Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

        PeerSpot user
        Rich text editor
          reviewer2003286 - PeerSpot reviewer
          Software engineer at a marketing services firm with 501-1,000 employees
          Real User
          Helps catch bugs, easy for non-technical users, and useful for tracking issues
          Pros and Cons
          • "This spectrum of solutions has allowed us to track down bugs faster and more rapidly, which allows us to limit revenue lost during downtime."
          • "Datadog could make their use cases more visible either through their docs or tutorial videos."

          What is our primary use case?

          We use metrics to track the metrics of our application. We use logging to log any errors or erroneous application behavior as well as successful behavior. We use events to log successful steps in our pipeline or failed steps in our deployment. We use a combination of all these features to diagnose bugs. 

          It makes it much more efficient to look at all the data in one place. This speeds up our development speed so that we can be agile.

          How has it helped my organization?

          This spectrum of solutions has allowed us to track down bugs faster and more rapidly, which allows us to limit revenue lost during downtime. 

          It also allows us to accurately record and project current and future revenue by measuring the application's metrics. This way, my team can accurately and rapidly create reports for upper management that are easy to read and understand. 

          Datadog is also easy to read by non-technical personnel. This way, if there are any erroneous readings, everybody has a chance to find them.

          What is most valuable?

          We use metrics to track the metrics of our application. We use logging to log any errors or erroneous application behavior as well as successful behavior. We use events to log successful steps in our pipeline or failed steps in our deployment. 

          We use a combination of all these features to diagnose bugs. It makes it much more efficient to look at all the data in one place. This speeds up our development speed so that we can be agile.

          These features are the features that I use the most since it is incredibly difficult to track down intermittent bugs if I were to look directly under the hood in a CLI.

          What needs improvement?

          Datadog could make their use cases more visible either through their docs or tutorial videos. There are different implementations of certain features that we utilize to customize Datadog functionality and in that way, we sometimes get results that are not conducive to what Datadog thinks their features' use cases are.

          For how long have I used the solution?

          I've used the solution for at least one year.

          Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

          We have only used Datadog. We did not previously use a different product.

          Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

          Public Cloud

          If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

          Amazon Web Services (AWS)
          Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

          PeerSpot user
          Rich text editor
            reviewer2004213 - PeerSpot reviewer
            Software enginneer at a construction company with 1,001-5,000 employees
            Real User
            Good monitoring, custom tracking, and customizable dashboards
            Pros and Cons
            • "The solution has helped our organization with custom events to track specific cases."
            • "We need to learn more about the session reply feature inside of DD."

            What is our primary use case?

            We use the solution for monitoring time spent on views and events triggered. For example, for one of our products, we have created a custom dashboard that lets us track all the custom events and multiple entry points in the same part of the application.

            Knowing the entry point helps us choose which part of the program should be improved next. It also helps us with collecting important data about the overall usage of each module within our application. 

            How has it helped my organization?

            The solution has helped our organization with custom events to track specific cases.

            It's helped with monitoring time spent on views and events triggered. For example, for one of our products, we have created a custom dashboard that lets us track all the custom events as well as multiple entry points into the same part of the application.

            Knowing the entry point helps us choose which part of the program should be improved. It's collecting important data about the overall usage of each module within our application. 

            What is most valuable?

            The most valuable feature is the custom events to track specific cases.

            Monitoring time spent on views and events can be triggered. For example, for one of our products, we have created a custom dashboard that lets us track all the custom events and multiple entry points in the same part of the application.

            Knowing the entry point helps us decide on improvements. We can collect important data about the overall usage of each module within our application. 

            What needs improvement?

            We look forward to the next features from Datadog. We need to learn more about the session reply feature inside of DD.

            For how long have I used the solution?

            I've used the solution for two years.

            Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

            PeerSpot user
            Rich text editor
              reviewer2045049 - PeerSpot reviewer
              Product Manager, Delivery Engineering at a media company with 1,001-5,000 employees
              Real User
              Intuitive to set up with great dashboards and dashboards and APM
              Pros and Cons
              • "The tools are powerful and intuitive to set up."
              • "Billing should be more transparent."

              What is our primary use case?

              The main use case is observability and reliability as part of a platform/delivery engineering solution. We use the product to assist tenants and clients within the company to get more ramped up on SRE/DevOps.

              How has it helped my organization?

              The solution has provided us with a lot more insight into service-level metrics, which is especially useful with APM/tracing. It gives us all-up dashboards and alerts to assist with incident management.

              What is most valuable?

              The most useful aspects of the product are the dashboards and APM/tracing. The tools are powerful and intuitive to set up as well.

              What needs improvement?

              Custom-level metrics could be improved.

              Billing should be more transparent.

              For how long have I used the solution?

              I've used the solution for three to four years at multiple companies.

              What do I think about the stability of the solution?

              The solution is very stable.

              What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

              The scalability is fantastic so far.

              How are customer service and support?

              Technical support has been great so far.

              How was the initial setup?

              The initial setup is straightforward. The documentation we use is very clean and concise.

              What about the implementation team?

              We handled the initial setup in-house.

              What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

              I would advise others to be cautious around custom metrics and be picky when setting them up.

              Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

              Hybrid Cloud

              If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

              Amazon Web Services (AWS)
              Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

              PeerSpot user
              Rich text editor
                reviewer2003478 - PeerSpot reviewer
                Data Engineer II at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
                Real User
                Ingests data from various sources, integrates well, and offers a helpful alert mechanism
                Pros and Cons
                • "Datadog agents act as an integration to different services, providing easy access and management."
                • "Ingesting data from various sources to monitor the log metrics of the system can always improve so that, if something goes wrong, the right teams are alerted."

                What is our primary use case?

                Ingesting data from various sources to monitor the log metrics of the system and enabling an alert mechanism to notify the teammates if something goes wrong.

                More specifically, having Datadog agents as integration to different services provides easy access and management.

                How has it helped my organization?

                The solution has helped out organization by allowing us to ingest data from various sources to monitor log metrics and enabling alert mechanisms to notify teams if something goes wrong.

                Datadog agents act as an integration to different services, providing easy access and management.

                What is most valuable?

                The solution is useful for ingesting data from various sources. This helps to monitor the log metrics of the system. It has alert mechanisms that can be enabled to notify the teams if something goes wrong.

                Datadog offers good integration to different services. It provides for easy access and management.

                What needs improvement?

                Ingesting data from various sources to monitor the log metrics of the system can always improve so that, if something goes wrong, the right teams are alerted. 

                For how long have I used the solution?

                We've used the solution for close to 1.5 years.

                What other advice do I have?

                We use a SaaS deployment.

                If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

                Amazon Web Services (AWS)
                Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

                PeerSpot user
                Rich text editor
                  Buyer's Guide
                  Download our free Datadog Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
                  Updated: April 2025
                  Buyer's Guide
                  Download our free Datadog Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
                  ...
                  ...