Sentry vs Datadog: developer error monitoring or full observability platform
Sentry and Datadog compared for error tracking, tracing, replay and logs: scope, OpenTelemetry, regions and billing models, and when each fits.
Choose Sentry if…
- Developers need to find and fix application errors, with stack traces, releases and session replay, and infrastructure monitoring is handled elsewhere or not needed
- You want to start free: the Developer plan includes errors, tracing, replays and logs for one user
- You want event-based billing (errors, spans, replays) rather than per-host pricing
Choose Datadog if…
- You also need infrastructure, host APM, log management and synthetics in the same tool as error tracking
- You need OTLP metrics ingestion or broad compliance coverage (FedRAMP, PCI DSS, HIPAA listed on its trust center)
- Your teams already run the Datadog Agent and want errors next to infrastructure data
| Product | APM | Distributed tracing | Metrics | Logs | Error tracking | Real user monitoring | Session replay | Infrastructure monitoring | Continuous profiling | Synthetic / uptime checks | OpenTelemetry | Runs as | Data regions | Free option | Pricing model | Compliance on vendor page |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SentrySentrysource · 8 Nov 2026 | Partial | Yes | Partial | Yes | Yes | Partial | Yes | No | Yes | Partial | Native OTLP ingest | SaaS | US, EUUS (Iowa) or EU (Frankfurt) | Free tier | per event, per span, per session, per GB ingested | SOC 2 Type II |
| DatadogDatadogsource · 8 Nov 2026 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Native OTLP ingest | SaaS | US, EU, UK, APACNine sites incl. EU1 (Germany), UK1, AP1 (Japan), AP2 (Australia) and two US government sites | Free tier | per host, per GB ingested, per event, per session, per test run | SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, HIPAA, FedRAMP, PCI DSS |
yes · partial or add-on · no · – not stated in the sources we checked. Compliance lists only reports named on the vendor's own trust or security page; a blank does not mean the vendor lacks them. From each vendor's own documentation on the date shown; prices are not shown here, only how each product bills.
These two are often compared but start from different places. Sentry is application monitoring built around errors: SDKs in your code report exceptions with context, with tracing, session replay, logs and profiling added around that. Datadog is a full observability platform in which error tracking is one product among infrastructure, APM, logs, RUM and synthetics.
Where they differ
| Sentry | Datadog | |
|---|---|---|
| Centre of gravity | Errors and the developer debugging workflow | Infrastructure and services across the stack |
| Infrastructure monitoring | No | Yes |
| Instrumentation | Sentry SDKs; OTLP endpoints for traces and logs (open beta, no OTLP metrics) | Datadog Agent, OTel Collector, or agentless OTLP |
| Billing | Plan quotas for errors, spans, replays, logs; pay-as-you-go above; profiling per hour | Per host for infrastructure and APM; errors by volume; replay per 1,000 sessions |
| Free way in | Developer plan (1 user) | Free infrastructure tier (5 hosts) |
| Data regions | US or EU | US, EU, UK, Japan, Australia, US government |
| Compliance on trust page | SOC 2 Type II | SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, HIPAA, FedRAMP High, PCI DSS |
Using both
Teams sometimes use Sentry for application errors and a separate platform for infrastructure. That works, but it means two places to look during an incident and two bills. If you only need one, decide by who the main user is: application developers fixing bugs point to Sentry, platform or SRE teams operating infrastructure point to Datadog.
More products are compared in the observability capability matrix.
Vendor facts
Sentry
Application monitoring built around error tracking, with tracing, session replay, logs, profiling, uptime and cron monitors.
- OpenTelemetry
- Native OTLP ingest: OTLP endpoints for traces and logs in open beta; OTLP metrics not supported
- Runs as
- saas
- Free option
- Free tier: Developer plan: one user, 5k errors and 5M spans, 50 replays
- Bills
- per event, per span, per session, per GB ingested (Plan quotas for errors, spans, replays and logs with pay-as-you-go above them; profiling per hour)
- Compliance
- SOC 2 Type II
Verified 8 Nov 2026 · Sentry pricing, Sentry docs: OTLP, Sentry docs: data storage location, Sentry security
Datadog
Full-stack SaaS observability: separately billed products for infrastructure, APM, logs, RUM, session replay, error tracking, synthetics and profiling.
- OpenTelemetry
- Native OTLP ingest: OTLP via the Datadog Agent (with embedded DDOT Collector), via your own OTel Collector, or direct agentless OTLP ingestion
- Runs as
- saas
- Free option
- Free tier: Free tier for infrastructure: up to 5 hosts with 1-day metric retention
- Bills
- per host, per GB ingested, per event, per session, per test run (Infrastructure, APM and profiler per host; logs per GB ingested plus per million indexed events; replay per 1,000 sessions; errors by volume)
- Compliance
- SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, HIPAA, FedRAMP, PCI DSS
Verified 8 Nov 2026 · Datadog pricing, Datadog docs: OpenTelemetry, Datadog docs: sites, Datadog Trust Center, OpenTelemetry vendor registry (frozen list)
Sources
- Sentry pricing, checked 8 Nov 2026
- Sentry docs: OTLP, checked 8 Nov 2026
- Sentry docs: data storage location, checked 8 Nov 2026
- Sentry security, checked 8 Nov 2026
- Datadog pricing, checked 8 Nov 2026
- Datadog docs: OpenTelemetry, checked 8 Nov 2026
- Datadog Trust Center, checked 8 Nov 2026
Matrix rows carry their own source and verification date. This page is revisited when: Sentry or Datadog change error tracking, tracing, replay or logs products, billing units, free plans, OTLP support or data regions