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It's a split decision.
Grafana fits teams that want to bring existing telemetry into Grafana Cloud through OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, and a broad plugin ecosystem, with a free tier for smaller workloads. Dynatrace suits teams seeking a wider observability platform spanning applications, infrastructure, security, and digital experience, with AI-driven investigations and automation. Compare costs against actual ingest, retention, host, and session use: Grafana Pro adds usage charges, while Dynatrace draws usage against an annual commitment.
01Side by side
| Grafana | Dynatrace | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | $19/month Pro platform fee, plus usage | Usage-priced services; annual platform commitment required |
| Free tier | Free plan; 10k active series, 50 GB/month | 15-day free trial; no free plan |
| Open source and licence | Open source; license name not listed | Open-source status not published |
| Integrations | OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, hundreds of plugins | Integrates with customer clouds and technologies |
| Platforms | Web | Web |
| Limits and scaling | Free limits; paid usage scales with telemetry | Usage-priced hosts, telemetry, sessions, and queries |
| Lock-in and data export | Open standards; connect existing tools without rip-and-replace | Integrations span customer clouds and technologies |
| Deployment model | Grafana Cloud; Enterprise lists Bring Your Own Cloud | Multi-cloud monitoring; deployment options not specified |
Grafana Choose Grafana if
- Choose Grafana if you need a free tier for smaller telemetry workloads.
- Choose Grafana if your stack uses OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, or plugins.
- Choose Grafana if you want telemetry-cost controls and usage-based Pro pricing.
Dynatrace Choose Dynatrace if
- Choose Dynatrace if you need application, infrastructure, and security observability together.
- Choose Dynatrace if you need real-user monitoring, synthetic checks, and session replay.
- Choose Dynatrace if AI-assisted investigations and workflow automation fit your operations.
02Pricing at real usage
Grafana has a free plan with 14-day retention for metrics, logs, traces, profiles, and k6; it includes 10k active metric series and 50 GB/month for logs, traces, and profiles. Pro starts with a $19/month platform fee, then charges for usage above included allowances. The pricing page lists Metrics Pro from $6.50 per 1k series and Logs Pro at $0.050/GB processed, $0.400/GB written, and $0.100/GB retained.
Dynatrace has no free plan, but offers a 15-day trial. Foundation & Discovery is listed at $7 per host/month, billed at $0.01 per host-hour; Full-Stack Monitoring is $58 per 8 GiB host/month. Logs, metrics, traces, sessions, and queries add usage charges. Usage draws down from a minimum annual platform commitment; its amount is not published. Dynatrace lists unlimited seats and no separate seat fees.
03API, SDKs and integration
Grafana Cloud connects existing tools and data sources using OpenTelemetry and Prometheus, with hundreds of plugins and integrations. That makes it a fit for teams that want to add a hosted observability layer without replacing their current telemetry sources. Dynatrace describes integrations with the clouds and technologies customers use, and its platform covers application performance, infrastructure, security, logs, and digital experience.
Neither homepage names API styles, SDK languages, or CLI tools, so confirm those interfaces and the relevant documentation before choosing an integration path. The product pages also do not identify specific Dynatrace integrations. For Grafana, check whether a plugin or standard covers each source and how its telemetry maps to your existing pipelines. For Dynatrace, ask which integrations support your stack and what data they collect, process, and retain.
04Open source, self-hosting and lock-in
Grafana is identified as open source, but the license name is not specified. Grafana Cloud is the hosted option; Enterprise lists Public Cloud, Federal Cloud, and Bring Your Own Cloud deployments. Grafana also says teams can connect existing tools without rip-and-replace, using standards such as OpenTelemetry and Prometheus. Those standards can make it easier to keep telemetry sources and pipelines connected across tools.
Dynatrace's homepage describes a platform for observing multi-cloud environments, but does not specify deployment choices or open-source status. Neither homepage describes a data-export path or migration procedure. Before adopting either platform, ask about exporting raw telemetry, dashboards, rules, and investigation data, and test what remains usable outside the vendor. Grafana's standards-based integrations provide a clear route for connecting data sources, but do not by themselves guarantee export of every Grafana-managed object.
Questions people ask
Which is better, Grafana or Dynatrace?
It depends on the stack and buying model. Grafana is a strong fit when you want a free starting tier and integrations built around OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, and plugins. Dynatrace fits teams seeking application, infrastructure, security, and digital-experience monitoring in one platform, with usage-based pricing and an annual commitment.
Is Loki the same as Grafana?
No. Grafana is an observability platform that brings telemetry together and includes dashboards, visualization, and other tools. Loki is not identified as equivalent to Grafana in the product details here. Check Loki's own documentation for its role and how it integrates with your Grafana deployment.
How do Grafana and Dynatrace pricing compare?
Grafana offers a free tier, then charges a $19/month Pro platform fee plus usage above included allowances. Dynatrace offers a 15-day trial, not a free plan, and prices services by usage; consumption draws down from a minimum annual platform commitment. Compare projected telemetry, retention, hosts, and sessions.
Can Grafana and Dynatrace work with existing telemetry tools?
Grafana explicitly supports OpenTelemetry and Prometheus and lists hundreds of plugins and integrations for connecting existing tools and data sources. Dynatrace says it integrates with customer clouds and technologies, but its homepage does not identify specific integrations. Verify support for your exact sources and data flows.