# Maple vs Datadog

Datadog is the broadest observability suite on the market, and its bill is shaped by hosts, agents and add-on products. Maple is an open-source observability platform for traces, logs and metrics that ingests OpenTelemetry directly and bills on data volume. Below: where the two differ, where Datadog is ahead, and what the same month costs on each.

## Where Maple and Datadog differ

Every cell is a sentence. The gutter says who has the edge on that row; rows where both tools do the same thing are collapsed into one line at the end.

### Where they differ

| Topic | Maple | Datadog | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Pricing model | $39 a month with 100 GB per signal included, then $0.30 per GB. Browser sessions are the only other meter: 5,000 a month included, then $0.002 each. | Infrastructure from $15 per host, APM from $31 per host, logs $0.10 per GB ingested plus $1.70 per million indexed events at 15-day retention. Custom metrics, RUM and each add-on product are priced separately. [1] | Maple |
| Per-host fees | None. A hundred containers on one host or one process on a hundred hosts cost the same at equal volume. | Infrastructure and APM are both metered per host, and containers draw down a per-host allotment. [1] | Maple |
| Agents | None. Any OpenTelemetry SDK or the OpenTelemetry Collector sends OTLP straight to Maple. | The Datadog Agent and Datadog tracing libraries. OTLP is accepted through the Agent, the Collector's Datadog exporter or direct OTLP intake, and some features need the Agent. [2] | Maple |
| Source code | On GitHub under FSL-1.1, converting to Apache 2.0 two years after each release. | Proprietary. The Agent is open source; the platform is not. | Maple |
| Self-hosting | Yes. Run the whole platform on your own infrastructure, including your own ClickHouse. | No. SaaS only. | Maple |
| Retention | 30 days on the cloud plan, longer on Enterprise, and your call when you self-host. | Indexed logs are priced at the retention you pick, 3 to 30 days; the $1.70 list rate is the 15-day option. Each other product carries its own retention. [3] | Maple |
| Time to first trace | Point an OTLP exporter at Maple. First traces arrive within minutes. | Roll out the Agent per host or as a DaemonSet, then enable and configure each product. | Maple |
| AI and agents | Built-in diagnostics plus a hosted MCP server, so Claude, Cursor or any agent can query your telemetry. | Bits AI across the platform and an MCP server. [4] | Even |

### Where Datadog is ahead

| Topic | Maple | Datadog | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Synthetic monitoring | Not available. Alerts evaluate real traffic only. | API and browser tests from managed locations, priced per ten thousand runs. [1] | Datadog |
| Security and network products | Not available. | Network Performance Monitoring, Cloud SIEM, Cloud Security and CI Visibility: a product for each layer, each on its own meter. [1] | Datadog |
| Integration catalog | OpenTelemetry receivers plus a catalog of connected providers: Cloudflare, Prometheus, PlanetScale, WarpStream, Hazel and GitHub. Kubernetes and Docker are agent installs. | More than 800 vendor-maintained integrations, many for systems that never emit OpenTelemetry. [5] | Datadog |
| Frontend and mobile | Session replay correlated with backend traces, web analytics from the browser SDK, and a Swift SDK. | Full RUM with funnels, heatmaps and error tracking, plus mobile RUM for iOS and Android. [1] | Datadog |
| Compliance attestations | SOC 2 and ISO 27001 certification in progress. Maple Cloud runs in the US or the EU (Frankfurt), and self-hosting keeps the data in your own audited environment. | SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA and FedRAMP attestations with regional sites. [6] | Datadog |

**Both have:** Distributed tracing · Log management · Metrics and dashboards · Alerting · Error tracking · Kubernetes monitoring · Public API · MCP server for agents · Session replay

## The same month, billed twice

A reference workload priced on both at list price. Change the sliders underneath for your own numbers.

**Reference workload:** Infrastructure hosts 15 hosts · APM hosts 10 hosts · Log volume 100 GB/mo · Team size 10 users

| Maple | Amount |
| --- | --- |
| Startup plan: 100 GB per signal included | $39 |
| Overage: 150 GB over × $0.30 | $45 |
| Team seats: No per-seat fees | Free |
| **Total** | **$84** |

| Datadog | Amount |
| --- | --- |
| Infrastructure: 15 hosts × $15 | $225 |
| APM: 10 hosts × $31 | $310 |
| Log management: 100 GB ingested + indexing | $36 |
| **Total** | **$571** |

$487 less per month on Maple

List prices checked September 2026. Sources at the foot of the page. Maple pricing based on the Startup plan ($39/mo with 100 GB included per signal (logs, traces, metrics), then $0.30/GB, billed per signal), metered on uncompressed (decoded OTLP) bytes. Trace volume is estimated at about 25 GB of spans per APM host a month. Datadog log indexing assumes 1 KB per event with 15% of events indexed.

Interactive calculator: https://maple.dev/compare/datadog#calculator

## Moving from Datadog

Telemetry moves with one exporter change. Dashboards and alert rules don't cross vendors, so plan those as the real work.

1. **Keep the OpenTelemetry you have** Services already on OpenTelemetry SDKs need no code change. Add Maple as a second OTLP exporter and ship to both backends while you compare.
2. **Replace the Agent with the Collector** Where the Datadog Agent is the only source, run the OpenTelemetry Collector with the same receivers, host metrics, Kubernetes and file logs, and export OTLP to Maple.
3. **Rebuild dashboards and monitors** Dashboards and monitors don't cross vendors. Maple's builder and alert rules cover the common set, and the MCP server can draft both from a description.

```yaml
# otel-collector.yaml. Add Maple as a second exporter, run both, then drop the first.
exporters:
  datadog:
    api:
      key: ${env:DD_API_KEY}
  otlphttp/maple:
    endpoint: https://ingest.maple.dev
    headers:
      x-maple-ingest-key: ${env:MAPLE_INGEST_KEY}

service:
  pipelines:
    traces:
      exporters: [datadog, otlphttp/maple]
    logs:
      exporters: [datadog, otlphttp/maple]
    metrics:
      exporters: [datadog, otlphttp/maple]
```

## Common questions

### Is Maple a drop-in replacement for Datadog?

For traces, logs, metrics, dashboards, alerting and error tracking, yes. Maple has no Synthetics, Network Performance Monitoring or Cloud SIEM, and its integration catalog is OpenTelemetry-first rather than 800 vendor connectors. Teams that live in APM, logs and infrastructure dashboards move cleanly; teams that bought Datadog for its security or network products should keep those.

### Does Maple support the Datadog Agent?

No. Maple ingests OpenTelemetry, so the Datadog Agent is replaced by the OpenTelemetry Collector, which has receivers for the same sources: host metrics, Kubernetes, Docker, file logs, Prometheus endpoints. Datadog's own tracing libraries are replaced by OpenTelemetry SDKs, which cover the same languages and frameworks.

### Can I migrate without downtime?

Yes. Add Maple as a second exporter in the Collector and send telemetry to both backends. Verify traces, logs and alerts in Maple, then remove the Datadog exporter. Nothing about the switch requires a deploy of your services if they already speak OpenTelemetry.

### How does the pricing actually compare?

Maple charges $39 a month with 100 GB each of logs, traces and metrics included, then $0.30 per GB. Datadog charges per host for infrastructure and APM, per GB ingested and per million indexed events for logs, and separately for custom metrics and each add-on product. The receipts above price one reference month on both; the calculator under them prices yours.

### Can I self-host Maple?

Yes. The source is on GitHub under FSL-1.1 and converts to Apache 2.0 two years after each release. Run it on your own infrastructure for data residency, keep retention as long as you like, and pay for compute and storage instead of per-GB fees. The hosted cloud is there when you'd rather not operate it.

## Where the Datadog claims come from

Vendor facts on this page link to the vendor's own pages and carry the month they were last checked. If one is stale, tell us.

1. [Datadog pricing](https://www.datadoghq.com/pricing/), checked September 2026
2. [Datadog: OpenTelemetry in Datadog](https://docs.datadoghq.com/opentelemetry/), checked September 2026
3. [Datadog: Log Management pricing](https://www.datadoghq.com/pricing/?product=log-management), checked September 2026
4. [Datadog: Bits AI and MCP Server](https://docs.datadoghq.com/bits_ai/mcp_server/), checked September 2026
5. [Datadog integrations](https://docs.datadoghq.com/integrations/), checked August 2026
6. [Datadog Trust Center](https://www.datadoghq.com/security/), checked August 2026

## Other comparisons

- [Maple vs Grafana](https://maple.dev/compare/grafana.md)
- [Maple vs New Relic](https://maple.dev/compare/new-relic.md)
- [Maple vs Dash0](https://maple.dev/compare/dash0.md)
- [Maple vs SigNoz](https://maple.dev/compare/signoz.md)
- [Maple vs Axiom](https://maple.dev/compare/axiom.md)