Grafana + Prometheus vs SigNoz
Both are alternatives to Datadog. Here's how they stack up — verified facts, no spin.
Also searched as SigNoz vs Grafana + Prometheus — same comparison, one verdict.
Grafana + Prometheus and SigNoz are closely matched on ownership (90 vs 88) — this one comes down to pricing and to which trade-offs below you can live with.
Grafana + Prometheus
TOP PICKThe open-source observability standard.
Prometheus scrapes and stores metrics; Grafana visualizes them (and logs and traces via Loki and Tempo). Together they are the de-facto open-source monitoring stack, fully self-hostable.
SigNoz
An OpenTelemetry-native, single-app Datadog alternative.
SigNoz brings metrics, traces, and logs into one open-source application built natively on OpenTelemetry, so you get APM-style visibility without per-host SaaS pricing.
Side by side
10 points of comparison, every one read from a verified field. Green marks the side that wins a row outright. A dash means we do not hold that fact — never that it is zero.
| Grafana + Prometheus | SigNoz | |
|---|---|---|
| Sovereignty ScoreOur transparent 0–100 composite for data ownership and exit cost. | 90 | 88 |
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hostable | Yes | Yes |
| Local-first data | Yes | Yes |
| License | AGPL-3.0 (Grafana) / Apache-2.0 (Prometheus) | MIT (core) |
| Pricing | Free / self-host | Free / self-host; optional managed cloud |
| RAM to run it wellThe figure that actually matters, not the vendor's minimum. | 8 GB | 8 GB |
| Realistic running costWhat the box costs each month if you run it yourself. | $30–60/mo for a stack monitoring 20–50 hosts, against several hundred on Datadog for the same estate | $50–90/mo for a mid-size estate, against Datadog APM pricing per host plus per-ingested-GB |
| Setup timeHonest first-install estimate, not the marketing quickstart. | A day for the stack, a week before the dashboards are genuinely useful | Half a day |
| Ongoing maintenanceThe part nobody budgets for. | Real. You own retention policy, cardinality, alert-rule hygiene and upgrades. This is the piece people underestimate: expect a few hours a month once it matters. | Moderate. Retention policy and ClickHouse disk headroom are the recurring jobs. |
Grafana + Prometheus is Macrostack's recommended Datadog alternative, so it's our pick here.
Weighing both against staying on Datadog? Is Datadog free? What it actually costs →
Grafana + Prometheus
Strengths
- +Industry-standard, huge ecosystem
- +Metrics, logs, and traces via the same UI
- +Enormous community and dashboards
Trade-offs
- −You assemble and operate the stack
- −Steeper initial setup than a SaaS agent
SigNoz
Strengths
- +One app for traces, metrics, and logs
- +OpenTelemetry-native
- +Purpose-built as a Datadog replacement
Trade-offs
- −Younger ecosystem than Grafana
- −Self-hosting needs a datastore to operate
Which one fits you
The trade-offs above, turned into a decision. Find the line that describes your team.
Choose Grafana + Prometheus
if a lower exit cost matters more to you than any single feature, and industry-standard, huge ecosystem.
Choose SigNoz
if one app for traces, metrics, and logs.
Neither, yet
if both carry a real cost you should weigh first — you assemble and operate the stack, and younger ecosystem than Grafana. If either of those is a dealbreaker for your team, the shortlist is wrong rather than the choice.
What it takes to run these yourself
Real requirements and honest running costs, not the vendor quickstart.
Self-hosting Grafana + Prometheus
8 GB RAM · A day for the stack, a week before the dashboards are genuinely useful
$30–60/mo for a stack monitoring 20–50 hosts, against several hundred on Datadog for the same estate
Self-hosting SigNoz
8 GB RAM · Half a day
$50–90/mo for a mid-size estate, against Datadog APM pricing per host plus per-ingested-GB
Grafana + Prometheus vs SigNoz — common questions
Is Grafana + Prometheus a better fit than SigNoz for observability & monitoring?
It depends on what you are optimising for, and the honest split is this: Grafana + Prometheus scores 90 to SigNoz's 88 on data ownership and exit cost, so it is the safer choice if you care about being able to leave. SigNoz earns its place on a different axis — one app for traces, metrics, and logs. Neither is a wrong answer for every team; the table above is the actual comparison.
What happens if we want to switch later?
Grafana + Prometheus keeps its data local or in open formats, so leaving is an export rather than a negotiation. SigNoz is still self-hostable, so the files stay on your server either way — but it is not local-first by design, so check what its export produces before you rely on it.
Can I self-host Grafana + Prometheus or SigNoz?
Both can be self-hosted. The difference is what it costs you in time rather than whether it is possible — see the setup and maintenance rows above.
Are Grafana + Prometheus and SigNoz both alternatives to Datadog?
Yes — both appear in our Datadog comparison, which is why they are worth putting side by side. People usually arrive here already having decided to move off Datadog and now choosing between the two replacements, which is a narrower and much easier question.
Related alternative guides
Facts verified 2026-07-12. Licenses and pricing change — spotted something out of date? That's a correction we want.