Datadog Review

PROS: Setting things up and utilizing in code was simple enough. With just few lines of code calling through the library, it becomes a highly scalable and useful counter service. UI is simple. It comes with essential features you'd come to expect from a counter service.

CONS: Nothing specific. But there's one thing to take note. The more data you own, the slower its service will be. Expect its query service and certain counter to slow down significantly.

PROS: The ability to track and solve problems last minute was a decisive criterion when choosing an APM tool, and I'm frankly glad we narrowed the search to Datadog. The thing with Datadog is that the team behind it never stops adding value, and their graphs and alerts are constantly upgrading to adapt to the dynamics of your workline. You're not supposed to do additional entries, as the system relies on datacentres, hostnames, system types and all similar aggregating counts and sources you have on disposal.

CONS: You need to have your apps instrumented with StatsD, otherwise there will be a lot of catch-up work for you.

PROS: Setup was easy. The UI is simple and clean. User-friendly in a lot of ways. If you had expereience of StatsD/Grafana then you'll be glad how easy this can be.

CONS: One time, we moved our servers to another host. As a result, we had to pay twice as much for a few months since we didn't switch the Datadog agents on our older servers. It pays to be careful. Ask for further details if you happen to be hosting your apps on cloud servers and if you're frequently doing short-timed instances.

PROS: I love how Datadog visualizes things. It lets you see how much data my app is currently using. The metrics it's using keeps you appraised on the current status of the app. It informs you in the form of latency, which is a big help.

CONS: There's nothing that I hate with it. So far, it does just about anything I want it to do.

PROS: Our current app uses so much data that we never thought we could 'pack' everything under the same roof. When Datadog joined our team-we did! We track all metrics easily, especially satisifed with the eye-pleasant interface and the perfect timing. Our overall opinion is that Datadog is a great tool, and it is useful in every situation.

CONS: I had quite a tough list of requests and expectations, and I was ashamed of even challenging Datadog to deal with them. Therefore, I have nothing to criticize about this program.

PROS: Flexibility at its finest. It's capable of tracking just about any metric out there. Great dashboad functionality. Dashboards can easily be shared.

CONS: Its agent hogs a lot of memory. Its front-end allows you to make different kinds of graphs. It's a bit difficult in making a TV-friendly dashboard that can read from far off. From time to time, a user would get logged out.

PROS: Setting it up was simple. You can quickly begin monitoring your system. Both dashboards and its Infrastructure Host map are amazing. An overview of the Health Dashboard can be seen at a glance.

CONS: The monitoring setup and alerts appear to be not as intuitive. Expect some learning curve to learn how to make alert configurations.

PROS: It is the perfect couple with Windows, and that’s great because Windows agents complement missing metrics with robust IIS/MSSQL statistics and WMI customization. They should also be proud of their RabbitMQ support-an invaluable shortcut for routine checks on dashboard processes. Dashboards bask with customization, meaning we've personalized the tool to our needs, and we're now reliable problem solvers to our clients.

CONS: I feel bad to say whatever negative about their interface, but I honestly lack dashboard configuration capacity. While most dropdown forms are autocompleted, there are such that require typing in the memory fields, and that takes plenty of time.

PROS: When a tool is this simple, you enjoy it from the very first moment. Me and my colleagues love its user-orientated interface, and the fact that everything is positioned right where it is supposed to be. Set-up was also unexpectedly simple, much alike installing Grafana or StatsD. Our favorite features are on-time alerts, triggered every time metrics start behaving in a specific way. Other important pros to consider are the advanced plugins that fetch CPU, message queues, database metrics, etc. If nothing else, you'll grow to love the tool because it truly saves time.

CONS: Our server migration to a different host didn't have a glorious ending, as disabling the old server's Datadog agents slipped our minds completely. We had to pay for those few months, together with the price of the new agents, and the company didn't really consider helping us out. Therefore, if you're using the cloud version and have doubts on hosting and short-time instances, ask until everything becomes clear. Otherwise, you can end up paying a fortune for nothing. Beware that a host can only use 100 metrics, and every additional application he is running means additional expense (this one is a bit tricky, we are using more metrics than we're supposed to, but the price hasn't changed so far).

PROS: To start with, I like the flexibility of the monitor, it is integrated with more than 100 services, which theoretically means you can track everything! Checks the health of the server, and enables creation of personalized dashboards where you mix all sorts of data without confusing the program. I also like the custom tracking stats, since there are new generation's APIs where you build the desired gauges and stats to measure even uncommon matrics. Futuristic, ain't it?

CONS: The learning curve is demanding, especially to those who wish to master every matric, service, or measurement process. Be careful what you wish for, it is an unexplored ocean what you're diving in! In technical terms, I'd mention few bugs and scratches I picked up on the go, my research has not been that intense to discover serious cons. Let's say that some alerts are not functional, and integration with some important services is too simple and trivial. Finally, if you don't know what you're about to do with it, don't take it. It requires a plan.