Independently operated. Not affiliated with Datadog, New Relic, Grafana Labs, Dynatrace, Splunk, or Elastic. Pricing sourced from public pages and may not reflect current rates. Verify on each vendor's pricing page before purchasing.
MonitoringCost.comRun Calculator

Tool

Cloud monitoring cost calculator

Verified April 2026

Move six sliders. See six vendor bills update in real time. Built to be a starting point for budget conversations and vendor negotiations, not a quote.

Your Environment

Move the dials. Watch costs change.

Pre-filled scenarios

Estimated monthly cost (USD list)

sorted: cheapest first

Grafana Cloudcheapest
$1,288
infra $0apm $0logs $1,088metrics $200
Elastic Cloud
$1,370
infra $800apm $300logs $270metrics $0
New Relic
$2,399
infra $891apm $0logs $1,508metrics $0
Dynatrace
$4,950
infra $2,100apm $2,400logs $450metrics $0
Splunk Cloud
$11,225
infra $0apm $1,100logs $10,125metrics $0
Datadog
$18,810
infra $1,800apm $1,550logs $15,450metrics $10

Potential annual saving

$210,270switching Datadog → Grafana Cloud

Assumptions and methodology

All figures use vendor list pricing as of April 2026. Negotiated, committed-use, and enterprise rates differ. The calculator is an estimator, not a quote.

  • Datadog: per-host infra, per-host APM, log ingest plus indexed events (assumed 4M events per GB), custom metric overage above 100/host included.
  • New Relic: data ingest model, ~0.5 GB/host/day baseline telemetry plus user log volume, 100 GB monthly free tier, seat costs at scale.
  • Grafana Cloud: active-series model (~150 series/host plus custom metrics), 10K series free, log ingest with 50 GB free.
  • Dynatrace: Davis Platform Subscription per-host capability units; full-stack APM unit cost.
  • Elastic Cloud: resource-based; per-host equivalents extrapolated from deployment-size pricing.
  • Splunk Cloud: log ingest dominant; APM separate.
  • Retention multiplier applied to log indexing/storage cost only.

Verify each vendor's current pricing on its official page before purchasing.

What this tool does

An honest, vendor-neutral estimate

Most online monitoring calculators are run by a vendor pushing its own product. This one applies the same scenarios to six platforms and shows the differences side by side. We do not score, rank, or recommend a winner.

6 vendors

Datadog, New Relic, Grafana Cloud, Dynatrace, Splunk, Elastic. All compared on the same inputs.

Live updates

Sliders update every vendor's cost on every input change. No submit button, no email gate.

List pricing

Public list rates only, with a clearly stated formula per vendor. No negotiated discounts assumed.

Pricing formulas

The exact arithmetic behind each vendor

Transparent so you can sanity-check every number. Adjust inputs and audit the output line items in the calculator above. All rates link back to the vendor's pricing page.

Datadog

(hosts x $18) + (apm hosts x $31) + (logs GB/mo x $0.10) + (logs GB/mo x 4M events x $1.70/M x retention multiplier) + (custom metrics overage x $0.05/100 x hosts)

New Relic

max(0, (hosts x 0.5 GB/day x 30 + apm hosts x 0.3 GB/day x 30 + log GB/mo) - 100 GB) x $0.30/GB x retention multiplier + seat costs at scale ($99/seat above 10 hosts)

Grafana Cloud

max(0, (hosts x 150 series + hosts x custom metrics) - 10K) / 100 x $0.80 + max(0, log GB/mo - 50) x $0.50 x retention multiplier

Dynatrace

(hosts x $21) + (apm hosts x $48) + (log GB/mo x $0.20) x retention multiplier

Elastic Cloud

(hosts x $8) + (apm hosts x $6) + (log GB/mo x $0.12) x retention multiplier

Splunk Cloud

(log GB/day x $4.50 x 30) x retention multiplier + (apm hosts x $22). Note: list per-GB/day rate is much higher; this estimate assumes typical workload-pricing discounts.

Verify before signing

Vendor pricing changes. Always cross-check the final number against the vendor's pricing page or a sales quote before purchasing or renewing.

Frequently asked

Is this calculator accurate?
It is a list-pricing estimator, not a quote. Vendors negotiate, bundle, and discount with committed-use contracts. Use the output as a starting point for vendor conversations and verify each vendor's published pricing before signing.
Why does Datadog look cheaper than Splunk for high log volumes?
Splunk's published list rate (~$150/GB/day for Splunk Cloud) is one of the highest in the market. The model normalises Splunk to a per-GB basis. Real Splunk contracts are heavily negotiated. Verify on Splunk's pricing page.
Why does Grafana Cloud free tier matter?
10K active series plus 50 GB logs plus 50 GB traces covers a meaningful portion of small-to-medium teams at zero cost. The calculator subtracts these allowances before charging.
How is APM calculated?
We multiply the per-host APM rate (where applicable) by the percentage of hosts with APM enabled. New Relic and Grafana Cloud bill APM through their primary meter, so APM line-items appear in the data ingest or active-series totals rather than as a separate APM charge.