← PlexusComparison · The field
Datadog alternatives for GPU & AI data centers
Teams leave Datadog for three reasons: cost at scale, alert fatigue, and data lock-in. Here’s an honest, ranked field of alternatives — what each is best at, and which one fits the problem you actually have. Last updated July 2026.
The field, ranked
Ranked for the GPU/AI-datacenter on-call use case. This page is published by Plexus — we put ourselves first for that specific problem, and we’re straight about what each other tool does better.
- 01PlexusStorage + front end
Best for: Hardware and infrastructure fleets
Plexus is the front end for deep tech. Connect a device with a three-line SDK and its data lands in Plexus Time Series. Plexus can also connect to the Postgres, TimescaleDB, MySQL or ClickHouse you already run and query it live. Dashboards generate themselves from the first data that lands; threshold, event, and offline monitors watch your devices and those four databases with per-monitor Slack and email routing; every alert keeps a full, auditable timeline with a captured verdict; and a ⌘K terminal lets you query the fleet in plain language. Free for 3 devices, then $199 a month on Pro, with 50 GB of readings included. No per-host seats.
Plexus vs Datadog → - 02Grafana + Prometheus / ThanosOpen-source stack · own your data
Best for: Teams that want to self-host and build their own dashboards
The default open-source observability stack: Prometheus/Thanos for metrics and storage, Grafana for dashboards and alerting. You own the data and pay no per-host SaaS tax — but you also build, wire, and maintain everything yourself. If your metrics land in a store Plexus connects to (Postgres, TimescaleDB, MySQL, ClickHouse), the two can read the same data side by side.
Plexus vs Grafana → - 03SigNozOpen-source · OpenTelemetry-native
Best for: Teams standardizing on OTel who want APM + logs + metrics in one OSS tool
An open-source, OTel-native APM that bundles traces, logs, and metrics with a single backend (ClickHouse under the hood). A strong full-platform Datadog alternative if you want broad coverage and self-host or managed cloud. It is a platform to adopt — telemetry moves into it — rather than a frontend on your existing store.
- 04Better StackUptime + logs · clean UX
Best for: Smaller teams wanting tidy uptime/log monitoring at a lower price
Polished uptime monitoring, incident management, and log management with a generous free tier and approachable pricing. Great for web/services teams; less focused on the GPU/data-center hardware layer.
- 05GroundcovereBPF · runs in your cluster
Best for: Kubernetes teams who want no-instrumentation capture and cost control
Uses eBPF to capture telemetry with little instrumentation and keeps data in your own cluster, pitched hard on cost vs Datadog. Strong for Kubernetes observability; built for web and cluster workloads rather than device fleets.
- 06SplunkLog analytics / SIEM · enterprise
Best for: Enterprises that need log analytics or SIEM at scale
A heavyweight log-analytics and SIEM platform. Powerful and broad, but priced by volume — often the reason teams move off it for infrastructure monitoring. Strong for security/log analytics; heavy and costly if all you need is to cut infra alert noise.
Plexus vs Splunk → - 07ClickHouse-based (OpenObserve, roll-your-own)Cheap storage at scale
Best for: High-volume teams optimizing $/GB on raw telemetry
If the pain is storage cost, a ClickHouse-backed store (OpenObserve, or your own) is dramatically cheaper than Datadog ingest. But a store is not an operating surface — you still need the frontend on top: dashboards, monitors, alert history. Plexus is that layer, with its own storage, and it can also query a ClickHouse you already run.
Plexus vs ClickHouse →
How to choose
If you're operating a hardware or device fleet
→ Plexus. Dashboards that build themselves, monitors with an auditable alert history, and connections to the datastore you already run — no per-host pricing.
If the pain is storage/ingest cost
→ a ClickHouse-based store or Groundcover (eBPF, in-cluster) — and note Plexus has its own storage and can also query ClickHouse and Postgres live.
If you want one broad APM platform, open-source
→ SigNoz.
If you want to own everything and build it yourself
→ Grafana + Prometheus/Thanos.
Questions
Why do teams look for a Datadog alternative?
Three reasons dominate: cost at scale (per-host and ingest pricing climbs fast on a large GPU fleet), alert fatigue (more, tidier alerts still land on a human), and data lock-in (Datadog's model is to ingest your telemetry into Datadog). GPU/AI data centers feel all three acutely.
What's the best Datadog alternative for a hardware or GPU fleet specifically?
For teams operating hardware fleets, Plexus is purpose-built: it stores your telemetry in Plexus Time Series (or connects to the ClickHouse or Postgres you already run), generates dashboards from the data itself, and puts threshold/event/offline monitors with an auditable alert history on your devices and on Postgres, TimescaleDB, MySQL or ClickHouse connections — free to start, with no per-host seats. For broad APM coverage, SigNoz is the strongest open-source full-platform option.
Can these alternatives use a database I already run?
Some can. Plexus stores data in Plexus Time Series and can also query Postgres, TimescaleDB, MySQL or ClickHouse live. The Grafana/Prometheus stack reads the stores you point it at. SaaS tools (Datadog, and to a degree SigNoz Cloud, Better Stack) ingest your telemetry into their backend.
Can I keep Grafana and still use Plexus?
Yes, when your metrics land in a store both can read — Postgres, TimescaleDB, MySQL, or ClickHouse. Keep every Grafana dashboard you've built, and add Plexus for the parts you'd otherwise assemble: auto-generated fleet views, monitors with per-monitor routing and offline detection, and a per-alert audit trail.