Datadog APM Bill Out of Control?

Complex Pricing, Expensive AI, Limited Retention

Expensive

"Our Datadog bill tripled when we enabled APM. Host-based pricing is brutal at scale."
— VP of Engineering
"Bits AI costs extra on top of an already expensive platform. We can't justify it."
— Platform Lead

Complex Pricing

"Host pricing, span pricing, ingested spans, indexed spans... I need a spreadsheet just to understand my bill."
— FinOps Manager
"Retention filters add another layer of complexity. What's being kept? What's being dropped?"
— Senior SRE

Retention Limits

"Live Search only keeps spans for 15 minutes. By the time I notice an issue, the data is gone."
— DevOps Engineer
"Maximum 15 days retention even with filters. With weekly releases, I have visibility of only 2 releases."
— Engineering Manager

Powerful Tracing with Simple Pricing

Oodle delivers Datadog-level tracing capabilities with transparent volume-based pricing, configurable retention, and AI-powered debugging included at no extra cost.

Simple Pricing

  • Volume-based, not host-based
  • No hidden fees or tiers
  • Predictable monthly bills

AI Included

  • AI-assisted debugging
  • MCP integration for debugging within Cursor/Claude
  • Natural language queries

Full Features

  • Flamegraphs & service maps
  • Tag analysis & trace insights
  • Span latency percentile comparison

Flexible Retention

  • Configurable retention
  • No 15-minute live search limit
"Oodle AI debugging has transformed how we debug and make decisions. What used to take hours now takes minutes — even our junior engineers solve issues faster. The team's super responsive and genuinely cares about our success."
— Ramakrishna R, Co-founder and CTO, Cureskin

Trusted by

fast growing startups, unicorns and public companies

Cureskin
HappyPath
Wisdom AI
Fuel
Lookout
Zaggle
CureFit
Fello
Distacart
Workorb
Effective AI
different.ai
Cureskin
HappyPath
Wisdom AI
Fuel
Lookout
Zaggle
CureFit
Fello
Distacart
Workorb
Effective AI
different.ai
Cureskin
HappyPath
Wisdom AI
Fuel
Lookout
Zaggle
CureFit
Fello
Distacart
Workorb
Effective AI
different.ai

Quick Comparison

Simplicity

Ingestion
Oodle:
✅ OpenTelemetry-Native & Datadog SDK/Agent compatible
Datadog APM:
✅ OpenTelemetry-Native & Datadog SDK/Agent compatible
Complex Queries
Oodle:
🟠 Span filters only
Datadog APM:
✅ Cross-span queries
Service Map
Oodle:
✅ Available
Datadog APM:
✅ Available

Incident Debugging

AI-assisted Debugging
Oodle:
✅ Included
Datadog APM:
✅ Bits AI
Cross-Signal Navigation
Oodle:
✅ Metrics + Logs + Traces
Datadog APM:
✅ Metrics + Logs + Traces
Anomaly Detection
Oodle:
❌ Not available
Datadog APM:
✅ Watchdog

Cost Controls

Pricing Model
Oodle:
✅ Volume-based (Simple)
Datadog APM:
❌ Host-based, retention filters (Complex)
Retention
Oodle:
✅ Configurable
Datadog APM:
🟠 15 min live, 15 days max

✅ Strong   🟠 Limited   ❌ Not available

Simple, Predictable Pricing

Volume-based pricing that doesn't penalize you for scaling.

Monthly Traces Costs

150

per GB / day

x

$0.3

per GB / month*

=

$1,350

per month

Contact us at info@oodle.ai for volume and reserved usage discounts.

*Assumptions: Daily volume × 30 days × monthly rate = monthly cost, 30d retention.

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions from teams using Datadog APM.

How does Oodle compare to Datadog APM feature-wise?

Oodle provides all the core APM features you expect: flamegraphs, service maps, tag analysis, and cross-signal correlation. Where Oodle differs is in pricing (volume-based vs host-based), retention (configurable vs limited).

Can I use my existing Datadog instrumentation?

Oodle supports multiple ingestion formats including OpenTelemetry, Jaeger, Zipkin, and the Datadog SDK format. You can migrate incrementally—start sending traces to Oodle alongside Datadog, validate everything works, then switch over.

How much can I save compared to Datadog?

Savings vary based on your setup, but teams typically see 4x cost reduction. Datadog's host-based pricing gets expensive fast, especially with ephemeral containers and auto-scaling. Oodle's volume-based pricing scales linearly with actual usage.

What about Watchdog and automated anomaly detection?

Datadog's Watchdog provides anomaly detection. Oodle currently does not have an equivalent feature. Talk to us if you would like us to build it :)

Start Saving Today

Migrate from Datadog APM with zero downtime.

1

Sign up & dual write

Send traces to both Oodle and Datadog.

Works with OTLP, or Datadog SDK/Agent format.

2

Validate & Compare

Ensure traces look correct and explore AI debugging.

See the cost difference in your Oodle dashboard.

3

Switch & Save

Once confident, disable Datadog APM.

Keep AI features and longer retention at lower cost.

We provide white-glove migration support to ensure a smooth, zero-disruption transition.