avuru obs vs. Datadog & New Relic
Datadog and New Relic are mature, feature-rich hosted APM platforms. If you want turnkey SaaS with a vast feature catalog and zero infrastructure to run, they deliver. avuru obs is the self-hosted, open-source counter-position: own your data, avoid per-host billing, and stay on open standards.
At a glance
| Datadog / New Relic | avuru obs | |
|---|---|---|
| Model | Hosted SaaS | Self-hosted (your cluster) |
| Agent | Proprietary agent | eBPF sensor + native OTLP |
| Data location | Vendor cloud | Your infrastructure |
| Pricing | Per-host / per-GB / per-seat | Infrastructure cost only |
| Lock-in | Proprietary formats & agents | OpenTelemetry in and out |
| License | Commercial | AGPL-3.0 |
| Breadth | Very broad (APM, RUM, security, synthetics…) | Focused: traces, logs, metrics, profiling |
Why teams switch
- Own your telemetry. Everything stays in your cluster — no data egress to a vendor, which also simplifies compliance.
- Predictable cost. Spend tracks your own infrastructure instead of a per-host or per-GB meter that scales with traffic.
- No proprietary agents. The eBPF
sensorneeds no code changes, and ingestion is standard OTLP, so you're never locked into one vendor's SDK. See Architecture. - Monitors without the meter. A service-health board with criticality tiers and webhook alerting when a service goes down are in the box — not a per-monitor or per-host line item.
How to migrate
Both Datadog and New Relic can export via OpenTelemetry, and most teams already run an OTel Collector:
- Install avuru obs in your cluster.
- Add the avuru
gateway(:4318/:4317) as an OTLP exporter in your Collector, alongside the vendor exporter, to run both in parallel. - Validate coverage in avuru obs, then scale down the paid plan.
See the OTLP bridge guide for exporter settings.
When Datadog or New Relic is the better fit
- You want fully managed SaaS with no infrastructure to operate.
- You need breadth avuru obs doesn't cover yet — RUM, synthetics, security monitoring, or their large turnkey integration catalog.
- You want vendor support contracts and SLAs today. avuru obs is young and self-supported — check Feature status before committing.
:::tip Try it side by side Install in 30 seconds and point one service's Collector at avuru obs — no new agent, no code change. :::