Datadog starts at $15/host/mo and charges for every metric, log, and trace you send. Beszel is a lightweight, open-source monitoring tool you can self-host on InstaPods for $3/mo - with no per-host fees.
| Feature | Datadog | Beszel |
|---|---|---|
| Starting Price | $15/host/mo (Infrastructure) | $3/mo total (self-hosted on InstaPods) |
| Per-Host Fees | Yes - $15-$23 per host | No - monitor unlimited hosts |
| CPU / Memory / Disk | Included in Infrastructure plan | Included - real-time dashboard |
| Docker Monitoring | $15/host/mo add-on | Built-in - no extra cost |
| Data Retention | 15 months (varies by plan) | Unlimited - your server, your storage |
| Alerting | Included (limited on free) | Email, webhook, and Telegram alerts |
| Custom Metrics | $0.05/metric/mo overage | No metering - collect what you need |
| Setup Complexity | Agent install + config | One-click deploy on InstaPods |
| Resource Usage | Heavy agent (~300MB RAM) | Lightweight agent (~15MB RAM) |
| Source Code | Closed source | Open source (MIT license) |
Limitations that push you toward self-hosting.
At $15/host/mo, monitoring 10 servers costs $150/mo. Add APM ($31/host) and logs ($0.10/GB), and you're looking at $500+/mo for a small infrastructure.
Datadog includes a limited number of custom metrics per host. Go over, and you pay $0.05/metric/month. Teams regularly get surprise bills from metric cardinality.
Datadog's dashboard is built for enterprise SRE teams. If you just need CPU, memory, and disk stats for a few servers, 90% of the interface is noise.
The advertised rates assume annual billing. Month-to-month pricing is significantly higher, and you can't easily downgrade mid-contract.
What you get when you own your infrastructure.
Install the Beszel agent on any server you want to monitor. The hub runs on one InstaPods pod and aggregates data from all your hosts - no per-host fees.
Beszel shows exactly what you need: CPU, memory, disk, network, and Docker stats. Clean UI, fast loading, no 50-tab dashboards.
The Beszel agent uses about 15MB of RAM. Compare that to Datadog's agent at 300MB+. Your monitored servers stay fast.
No data ever leaves your infrastructure. No third-party data processing agreements needed. Perfect for privacy-conscious teams.
Monitoring 5 servers with CPU, memory, disk, network stats and Docker containers.
For infrastructure monitoring (CPU, memory, disk, network, Docker), absolutely. Beszel covers the core metrics most teams need. Where Datadog pulls ahead is APM, log management, and enterprise features like anomaly detection. If you need basic server monitoring without the enterprise price tag, Beszel is the better choice.
Yes. Beszel has built-in Docker monitoring - it shows per-container CPU and memory usage alongside system metrics. No add-on fees, no extra configuration.
There's no built-in limit. Install the lightweight agent (~15MB RAM) on each server, point it at your hub, and it appears in the dashboard. The $3/mo InstaPods pod can comfortably handle 20+ monitored hosts.
Yes. You can set threshold-based alerts for any metric and get notified via email, webhook, or Telegram. It's not as feature-rich as Datadog's alerting (no anomaly detection or forecasting), but it covers the essentials.
Deploy Beszel on InstaPods and stop paying for features that should be free.
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