Airbrake vs Datadog: What are the differences?

Introduction

Airbrake and Datadog are both popular monitoring tools used by developers to track application errors and performance issues. While they share some common features, there are several key differences between these two tools. This article will highlight and explain six important differences between Airbrake and Datadog.

1. Pricing: Airbrake offers different pricing plans based on the number of projects or users, while Datadog pricing is based on the number of hosts or containers being monitored. This can be a significant factor when choosing between the two, depending on the specific needs and size of your organization.

2. Alerting Capabilities: Airbrake focuses primarily on error tracking and provides proactive error alerts via email, Slack, and other channels. In contrast, Datadog offers a broader range of alerting capabilities, allowing you to set up alerts based on specific metrics, logs, and events, making it more suitable for complex monitoring scenarios.

3. Integration Options: Both Airbrake and Datadog provide integrations with popular programming languages and frameworks. However, Datadog offers a wider range of integrations with various tools and services, including cloud providers, databases, and automation tools. This gives developers more flexibility when it comes to connecting their monitoring data with other parts of their infrastructure.

4. Performance Monitoring: Datadog offers comprehensive performance monitoring capabilities, allowing you to track and analyze metrics such as CPU usage, memory usage, and response times. Airbrake, on the other hand, primarily focuses on tracking exceptions and errors, without providing detailed performance monitoring features. If performance monitoring is a crucial aspect of your application monitoring strategy, Datadog may be more suitable.

5. Infrastructure Monitoring: While both Airbrake and Datadog focus on application monitoring, Datadog also includes robust infrastructure monitoring capabilities. This means you can monitor the health and performance of your servers, containers, and network infrastructure alongside your application metrics. Airbrake, in comparison, is primarily focused on application-level monitoring, without as much emphasis on the underlying infrastructure.

6. User Interface and Reporting: Datadog offers a more comprehensive and customizable user interface, allowing you to create dashboards and reports tailored to your specific needs. Airbrake, on the other hand, provides a simpler and more streamlined user interface, which may be easier to navigate for those seeking a more straightforward monitoring solution.

In summary, Airbrake and Datadog differ in their pricing models, alerting capabilities, integration options, performance monitoring features, infrastructure monitoring capabilities, and user interface. The choice between the two tools depends on your specific monitoring requirements, budget, and preference for a more streamlined or comprehensive monitoring solution.