Datadog vs Elastic Security comparison

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28,689 views|17,591 comparisons
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Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary
Updated on Mar 30, 2022

We performed a comparison between Datadog and Elastic Security (formerly ELK Logstash) based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.

  • Ease of Deployment: Most users of Datadog felt the setup and deployment was straightforward, as long as they were familiar with the software. Users of Elastic Security said setup and deployment was easy, but with each additional server, it became more complex.
  • Features: Datadog users felt the software had great integration and error reporting, and that it provided great visibility, which helped proactivity around incident management. But users had a problem with stability and didn’t like that there was not enough monitoring through the dashboard.

    Elastic Security users thought the software was very flexible and scalable but felt the monitor was not mature enough. They also had difficulty retrieving data, and were unhappy that the solution didn’t offer predictive maintenance.
  • Pricing: Users of Datadog found the software expensive and the pricing model confusing. Users of Elastic Security said that licensing was expensive yet competitively priced.
  • Service and Support: Most Datadog users were satisfied with the level of support. On the other hand, Elastic Security users had mixed reviews regarding support; some said that response time took a while.
  • ROI: Users of Datadog had mixed reviews on the ROI; some thought the product was too expensive, which was why they hadn’t seen ROI yet.

Comparison Results: Datadog and Elastic Security have a similar user rating for ease of deployment, and users of both felt that the solutions were expensive. Users felt Elastic Security took too long to respond when it came to service and support. In terms of features, reviewers of Datadog had a problem with stability and felt there wasn’t enough monitoring through their dashboard. Reviewers of Elastic Security said they had difficulty retrieving data and felt the solution should offer predictive maintenance.

To learn more, read our detailed Datadog vs. Elastic Security Report (Updated: September 2023).
735,226 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Q&A Highlights
Question: Datadog vs ELK: which one is good in terms of performance, cost and efficiency?
Answer: With Datadog, we have near-live visibility across our entire platform. We have seen APM metrics impacted several times lately using the dashboards we have created with Datadog; they are very good core indicators of the health of our system. You can build very useful dashboards right out of the box using this solution. Our developers are able to see how code is running in production, and having custom built-in metrics gives us a wealth of knowledge and historical data that helps keep our system running smoothly. The pricing with Datadog can be very high. We feel there should be a more tiered approach to give users the opportunity to buy a more tailored product specific to their organizational needs. Datadog could also be more user-friendly. We would like to see deeper application-level insight and better incident management. Using ELK, you can gather authentication information from service providers and determine which identity provider is not performing properly. ELK is very flexible; you can have a number of scenarios and get logs from all of them. ELK is a very cost-effective solution. But it can be a complex solution to use. Better integration with 3rd party APMs would be very helpful. Currently, upgrades with ELK are released as stacks. Plugins or extensions would save removal and reinstallation and make the process move seamlessly. Conclusion We researched both of these solutions and concluded Datadog gave us the best visibility, better integration, and helpful, timely support. The logs and error reporting are extremely useful to conduct analysis and root cause analysis. The setup, ease of use, and flexibility with dashboard creation and reporting are just some of the things that our team liked about Datadog.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"The dashboards and the performance of the software have been great.""Datadog's seamless integration with Slack and PagerDuty helped us to receive alerts right to the most common notification methods we use (our mobile devices and Slack).""Datadog has a lot of features to be able to drill down deep into the swath of logs that our platforms generate.""Datadog has clear dashboards and good documentation.""It has provided visibility with ease of implementation and allowed multiple teams to quickly onboard it.""The network map is crucial in identifying bottlenecks and determining what needs more attention.""The infrastructure monitoring capabilities are really valuable. You can just log on and see everything that is happening within an IT environment.""We have way more observability than what we had before - on the application and the overall system."

More Datadog Pros →

"The solution is compatible with the cloud-native environment and they can adapt to it faster.""I can look at events from more than one source across multiple different locations and find patterns or anomalies. The machine learning capabilities are helpful, and I can create rules for notifications to be more proactive rather than responding after something has gone wrong.""It can handle millions of loads at a time, and you can always use the filters to find exactly what you are looking for and detect errors in every log message you are searching for, basically.""What customers found most valuable in Elastic Security feature-wise is the search capability, in particular, the way of writing the search query and the speed of searching for results.""Elastic Security is very easy to adapt.""The most valuable thing is that this solution is widely used for work management and research. It's easy to jump into the security use case with the same technology.""Elastic is straightforward, easy to integrate, and highly customizable.""It is scalable."

More Elastic Security Pros →

Cons
"We need a lot of modules since we collect all data logs from all operating systems.""I sometimes log in and see items changed, either in the UI or a feature enabled. To see it for the first time without proper communication can sometimes come as a shock.""They need to implement template variables into the message response body.""The ease of implementation needs improvement.""Ingesting data from various sources to monitor the log metrics of the system can always improve so that, if something goes wrong, the right teams are alerted.""Once Datadog has gained wide adoption, it can often be overwhelming to both know and understand where to go to find answers to questions.""Graph filters for logs need to be set manually which works well for JSON but not for unstructured logs.""It is very difficult to make the solutions fit perfectly for large organizations, especially in terms of high cardinality objects and multi-tenancy, where the data needs to be rolled up to a summarized level while maintaining its individual data granularity and identifiers."

More Datadog Cons →

"Elastic Security's maintenance is hard and its scalability is a challenge. There are complications in scaling and upgrading. The solution needs to also provide periodic upgrade checks.""Technical support could respond faster.""It is difficult to anticipate and understand the space utilization, so more clarity there would be great.""The tool needs to integrate with legacy servers. Big companies can have legacy servers that may not always be updated.""It could use maybe a little more on the Linux side.""The setup process is complex. You need a solid working knowledge of networking, operating systems, and a little programming.""We'd like better premium support.""The tool should improve its scalability."

More Elastic Security Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "Our licensing fees are paid on a monthly basis."
  • "Sometimes it's very hard to project how much it will cost for the monthly subscription for the next month when you add certain features. Having better visibility of the cost would give a better experience."
  • "While it is an expensive product, I would rate the pricing level at four out of five."
  • "The price is better than some competing products."
  • "The price of Datadog is reasonable. Other solutions are more expensive, such as AppDynamics."
  • "This solution is budget friendly."
  • "The solution is fairly priced but history and log storage can get costly depending on your needs."
  • "Licensing is based on the retention period of logs and metrics."
  • More Datadog Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "Affordable but with additional costs"
  • "When compared to other products, the price is average or on the low side."
  • "The licensing cost of Elastic Security is based on the daily ingestion rate. I can't recall the exact figure, but for 10GB of log action daily, it would cost around $20,000."
  • "The price is reasonable. It probably costs the same as ArcSight and LogRhythm SIEM. FortiSIEM might cost less than Elastic Security. There are no hidden or additional costs."
  • "The tool's pricing is flexible and comes at unit cost. You don't have to pay for everything."
  • "The base product is open-source but if you need advanced security features then you need to pay for the subscription. Elastic Security's price is reasonable in some cases and in other cases it's not."
  • "The pricing is in the middle. I think it is not an expensive experience if we compare it with big names, for example, QRadar, and also Oxide. I think Elastic Security is quite cheap. I would rate the pricing of this solution a five out of ten."
  • More Elastic Security Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Answers from the Community
    HAPPY BHALLA
    Aji Joseph - PeerSpot reviewerAji Joseph
    Reseller

    It depends on your requirement. If you are looking for a SIEM/log management solution ELK would be a better option. 


    But if you are looking for more of a monitoring solution Datadog would be better. Also, Datadog provides out-of-the-box integrations with a lot of cloud applications. ELK could be cost-effective but a bit challenging to configure & finetune.   

    Shibu Babuchandran - PeerSpot reviewerShibu Babuchandran
    Real User

    Datadog: Unify logs, metrics, and traces from across your distributed infrastructure. Datadog is the leading service for cloud-scale monitoring. It is used by IT, operations, and development teams who build and operate applications that run on dynamic or hybrid cloud infrastructure. Start monitoring in minutes with Datadog!


    Datadog features offered are:

    200+ turn-key integrations for data aggregation
    Clean graphs of StatsD and other integrations




    Elasticsearch: Open Source, Distributed, RESTful Search Engine. Elasticsearch is a distributed, RESTful search and analytics engine capable of storing data and searching it in near real time. Elasticsearch, Kibana, Beats and Logstash are the Elastic Stack (sometimes called the ELK Stack).


    Elasticsearch provides the following key features:

    Distributed and Highly Available Search Engine.
    Multi Tenant with Multi Types.
    Various set of APIs including RESTful

    reviewer1584621 - PeerSpot reviewerreviewer1584621 (Cyber Security Consultant at a tech services company with 11-50 employees)
    Real User

    Dear,


    Unfortunately, I can't say much about Datadog but I have used ELK for a short period. 


    And I can tell you not everything works the way it should. For example, I noticed heavy CPU usage for a Windows client on MS AD servers. I advise you to consider this if it's important to you.


    Good luck!

    reviewer1352679 - PeerSpot reviewerreviewer1352679 (IT Technical Architect at a insurance company with 5,001-10,000 employees)
    Real User

    Where do you want to spend your money, on people or licenses?


    ELK requires a long-term investment in engineering resources to manage the system and to provide the capability.  


    Datadog provides capabilities for you so you only need some administrators. What are the capabilities?  Some critical ones include availability, scalability, consuming log files, platform upgrades, ...

    If you are consuming smaller data sets (100's of GB) with shorter retention, the size and scaling are much easier making ELK easier.

    Do you have admins or engineers?  If your team doesn't have dedicated time & skills to spend developing solutions like elastic-alert you should look for a vendor to provide capabilities.

    I expect some capabilities in Datadog you will not be able to replicate in ELK....  so that answer makes this obvious.

    We are going to evaluate the same for our org. We do about 10 TB a day consumption in ELK and are looking to see if we can shift $$$ from engineers and infra to SaaS.

    Ovais Reza - PeerSpot reviewerOvais Reza
    Real User

    I have used both ELK and Datadog, and there are lots of variables to consider here. The three important points that I looked at are:


    - Cost. In addition to service costs, you have to consider egress and ingress costs as well.


    - Real-time observability that you need during development vs long-term Observability. Keep in mind, when you export data over the internet, it comes with the same reliability issues as any other service on the internet. Regardless of how Datadog classifies its service as real-time, it is not real-time, IMO. It very much depends on your definition of real-time.


    - Deployment and maintenance complexity. When your ELK cluster grows it has some pain points you need to be aware of.


    My general approach is to deploy ELK for development, tune the data, and then pivot toward commercial solutions if I need to. This gives you insight into your data and what you should be preserving and that way you are not paying high costs, when or if you do decide to take advantage of a commercial solution.

    it_user860751 - PeerSpot reviewerit_user860751 (IT Manager at a healthcare company with 201-500 employees)
    Real User

    Can you tell me what you actually want to do so that I can help you?

    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:There are many factors and we know little about your requirements (size of org, technology stack, management systems, the scope of implementation). Our goal was to consolidate APM and infra… more »
    Top Answer:With Datadog, we have near-live visibility across our entire platform. We have seen APM metrics impacted several times lately using the dashboards we have created with Datadog; they are very good core… more »
    Top Answer:Our organization ran comparison tests to determine whether the Datadog or Dynatrace network monitoring software was the better fit for us. We decided to go with Dynatrace. Dynatrace offers network… more »
    Top Answer:Elastic Security is very easy to adapt.
    Top Answer:The pricing is in the middle. I think it is not an expensive experience if we compare it with big names, for example, QRadar, and also Oxide. I think Elastic Security is quite cheap. I would rate the… more »
    Top Answer:The tool should improve its scalability.
    Ranking
    2nd
    out of 73 in Log Management
    Views
    28,689
    Comparisons
    17,591
    Reviews
    101
    Average Words per Review
    435
    Rating
    8.6
    5th
    out of 73 in Log Management
    Views
    20,965
    Comparisons
    17,413
    Reviews
    23
    Average Words per Review
    404
    Rating
    7.6
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    Elastic SIEM, ELK Logstash
    Learn More
    Overview

    Datadog is a cloud monitoring solution that is designed to assist administrators, IT teams, and other members of an organization who are charged with keeping a close eye on their networks. Administrators can use Datadog to set real-time alerts and schedule automated report generation. They can deal with issues as they arise and keep up to date with the overall health of their network while still being able to focus on other tasks. Users can also track the historical performance of their networks and ensure that they operate at the highest possible level.

    Datadog Benefits

    Some of the ways that organizations can benefit by deploying Datadog include:

    • Gain an integrated view of the services and programs that IT teams are employing across their networks. Users can view and monitor all of the disparate programs that they have running across their networks with this one solution. They can track these programs across the entirety of the data’s life cycle.
    • Analyze and utilize massive amounts of data in real time. Datadog’s dashboards gather data in real time. Administrators can utilize their network’s data the minute that it becomes relevant to them. Decisions can be made based on the most current information available.
    • Keep your cloud network secured against digital threats. Datadog enables users to create alerts that will notify the minute that threats arise. IT teams and administrators can rapidly address any issue that comes up and prevent any existing problem from growing worse.
    • Easily get it up and running. Users can set up Datadog, configure it, and employ API integrations to connect it to external solutions with ease.

    Datadog Features

    • Customizable and prefabricated monitoring dashboards. Administrators are supplied with two different types of dashboards that they can choose from when they are setting up Datadog. They can customize the dashboards to fit any specialized monitoring need. Additionally, users can choose to use prefabricated dashboards that come with the solution.
    • Disaster recovery feature. Datadog has a built-in feature that enables organizations to continue functioning if some disaster strikes their network. If the network suffers damage, Datadog can restore lost data and infrastructure. Should a digital threat do damage to the network, Datadog ensures that the damage is not irreparable.
    • Vulnerability scanning tool. Users can keep ahead of threats to their networks by employing Datadog’s vulnerability scanning feature. This tool scans the entirety of a user’s network and warns them if a vulnerability is detected. Users can then move to patch these holes in their security before the threat to their network can escalate.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Datadog is a solution that stands out when compared to many of its competitors. It can offer organizations many advantages. Two major advantages are the dashboards that users can create and the monitoring capability that it gives system administrators.

    A senior manager in charge of site reliability engineering at Extra Space Storage writes, “The dashboards we created are core indicators of the health of our system, and it is one of the most reliable sources we have turned to, especially as we have seen APM metrics impacted several times lately. We can usually rely on logs to tell us what the apps are doing.”

    Housecall Pro’s senior director of DevOps writes, “We value the monitoring capability since it allows us to be pushed alerts, rather than having to observe graphs continually.

    Unify SIEM, endpoint security, and cloud security
    Elastic Security modernizes security operations — enabling analytics across years of data, automating key processes, and bringing native endpoint security to every host.
    Elastic Security equips teams to prevent, detect, and respond to threats at cloud speed and scale — securing business operations with a unified, open platform.
    Offer
    Learn more about Datadog
    Learn more about Elastic Security
    Sample Customers
    Adobe, Samsung, facebook, HP Cloud Services, Electronic Arts, salesforce, Stanford University, CiTRIX, Chef, zendesk, Hearst Magazines, Spotify, mercardo libre, Slashdot, Ziff Davis, PBS, MLS, The Motley Fool, Politico, Barneby's
    Texas A&M, U.S. Air Force, NuScale Power, Martin's Point Health Care
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm22%
    Computer Software Company14%
    Comms Service Provider11%
    Pharma/Biotech Company5%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization29%
    Computer Software Company12%
    Financial Services Firm11%
    Manufacturing Company6%
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm37%
    Computer Software Company26%
    Comms Service Provider11%
    Healthcare Company11%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company17%
    Financial Services Firm10%
    Government9%
    Comms Service Provider7%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business37%
    Midsize Enterprise20%
    Large Enterprise44%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business17%
    Midsize Enterprise37%
    Large Enterprise46%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business59%
    Midsize Enterprise16%
    Large Enterprise25%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business24%
    Midsize Enterprise17%
    Large Enterprise59%
    Buyer's Guide
    Datadog vs. Elastic Security
    September 2023
    Find out what your peers are saying about Datadog vs. Elastic Security and other solutions. Updated: September 2023.
    735,226 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Datadog is ranked 2nd in Log Management with 101 reviews while Elastic Security is ranked 5th in Log Management with 24 reviews. Datadog is rated 8.6, while Elastic Security is rated 7.6. The top reviewer of Datadog writes "Easy to set up and good UI but needs better customization capabilities". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Elastic Security writes "A highly flexible and customizable tool that needs to improve automation and integration". Datadog is most compared with Dynatrace, Azure Monitor, New Relic and Splunk Enterprise Security, whereas Elastic Security is most compared with Wazuh, Splunk Enterprise Security, Microsoft Sentinel, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint and CrowdStrike Falcon. See our Datadog vs. Elastic Security report.

    See our list of best Log Management vendors.

    We monitor all Log Management reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.