Researched by RouterFreak | Sources checked October 2026 | Not tested in our lab
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Datadog ranks #9 in our best network monitoring tools ranking, with a rating of 7.4 out of 10. It adds network device monitoring and flow visibility to a full observability platform, which makes it a natural fit for teams already running Datadog and an expensive one for everyone else.
| UI/UX | Scalability, support & security | Features | Integration | Value | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | 9 | 7 | 9 | 4 | 7.4 |
Overview
Datadog is a cloud observability platform covering infrastructure, application performance, logs, security, and more. On the network side, Network Device Monitoring collects SNMP metrics from routers, switches, and firewalls, while Cloud Network Monitoring tracks flows, connections, and DNS between hosts and services.
Noteworthy features
- Unified data: network metrics next to host, container, application, and log data in the same dashboards.
- Network Device Monitoring: SNMP device health and interface metrics, plus NetFlow as a separately billed add-on.
- Cloud Network Monitoring: traffic between services, availability zones, and cloud regions.
- Anomaly detection: machine learning alerts on unusual behavior.
- Integrations: hundreds of out-of-the-box integrations with cloud services, databases, and tools.
Pricing
Network Device Monitoring costs $7 per device per month billed annually, $8.50 month-to-month, or $10.20 on-demand. Cloud Network Monitoring costs $5 per host per month billed annually. NetFlow monitoring is billed separately by the volume of flow records, and most teams will also pay for infrastructure hosts and log ingestion.
Pros
- Network data in the same place as application and cloud data
- Scales without infrastructure to manage
- Strong collaboration features: shared dashboards, annotations, and notebooks
Cons
- Modular pricing compounds quickly and is the most common complaint from users
- Network depth (config management, topology, Layer 2 detail) trails dedicated network tools
- SaaS only
User interface
Bottom line
If your organization already runs on Datadog, adding network device monitoring is an easy way to put network data next to everything else. As a standalone network monitoring tool, it is expensive and less deep than the dedicated options ranked above it.
See how it compares with ten other tools in our best network monitoring tools ranking.
How we researched this
We have not run Datadog in our lab, so this is not a hands-on review. It is based on Datadog’s product and pricing pages, and user reviews, checked in October 2026. Prices change often, so confirm them with Datadog before you buy.
