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What needs improvement with Datadog?
Excerpt
Datadog can be improved because sometimes it seems it has not been developed for enterprises. We work with over 300 customers, with each customer having multiple instances or apps within Datadog. We are facing difficulties in controlling access, in privacy settings, and splitting usage and costs for these customers. We want to be able to customize the cost part, and we would appreciate more granular access control. … To make Datadog better, it should be able to pick up error codes automatically. Currently, you have to programmatically configure every single step. In our previous tool, Dynatrace, it could pick up error codes without developers having to explicitly code that into the configuration. Sometimes the APMs are missing the exact error code and error message which is frustrating. Some minor improvements could include adjusting unit display on dashboards. ... The only improvement I would to see with Datadog is that the graphical user interface sometimes takes a little bit to load, especially when diving deep on a subject, and just a little bit more caching would help. The largest pain point we've had with Datadog to this point was onboarding. This was partly our fault because our logs weren't really set up to be used in a modern observability platform Datadog, but I definitely would have liked to have seen more comprehensive onboarding. … Areas for improvement: Datadog could improve in dashboard usability and data correlation across products. While it’s powerful, the interface can feel cluttered and overwhelming for new users. Streamlining navigation and offering simpler default dashboards would help teams ramp up faster. Additional features for next release: It would be great to see stronger AI-driven anomaly detection and predictive analytics to help identify potential issues before they impact performance. ... … Another issue I have is with the search syntax, it could be simpler. The syntax is a bit cumbersome and there is not an intuitive to save them to look for similar searches in the future. Finally, while my company replaced a different tool for session replay with DataDog's version, I find it clunky and in need of further improvements. … For three to four months, we have been experiencing real-time delays. For example, if we're monitoring incoming traffic, the real-time status should be displayed up to a certain point. However, due to delays or issues with Datadog, the real-time data might only be updated at an earlier time. We are experiencing consistent delays in data updates from Datadog, with the most recent data often being delayed by about an hour. This issue has been ongoing for the past four months. … I found the documentation can sometimes be confusing. I tried configuring APM for some of our Python containers, and I had to cross-reference multiple blog posts and the official documentation to figure out which Datadog-agent to use. If I needed a ddtrace trace, what environment variables I should set, etc. Furthermore, to generate my own traces, I wasn't aware that ddtrace adds its own "monkey patching," which led to headaches with respect to configuring the service for RabbitMQ. A more unified and up-to-date documentation suite would be greatly appreciated. … The product is quite complex, and there are so many features that I either didn't know about or wasn't sure how to use. One thing that could be improved is somehow surfacing interesting or relevant products that might be applicable given our infrastructure. Additionally, the billing can sometimes be confusing and opaque, especially around not making it obvious what the implications can be if you add different AWS integrations. This has caused some unexpected costs in the past due to engineers not understanding how Datadog pricing works. … In the past two years, there have been a couple of outages. Their logging solution is expensive for our use case. They do have the capability to rehydrate old or incomplete logs, and it works, but I would rather not have to think about that operation. Datadog has a lot of documentation, but a lot of that documentation assumes you know how the service works, which can lead to confusion. Positive note is that they do have lots of documentation, it just needs better curation. Their APM solution still needs some work, but they are actively developing it. I would also like to see more database-specific application monitoring.
Related Pain Points
Real-time data ingestion delays and monitoring latency issues
7Teams report persistent 1-hour delays in real-time data updates from Datadog, lasting 3–4 months. In high-ingest pipelines, bursty microservice deployments can trigger metadata spikes that inflate queue sizes by 400% within minutes, causing missed alerting windows and degraded user experience without proper traffic shaping and rate-limiting.
Complex initial setup and overwhelming feature/integration configuration
6Datadog's extensive feature set and integration options overwhelm first-time users. Setting up custom metrics and alerts requires deep product knowledge. Developers must navigate complex documentation to configure APM, trace collection, and integrations (e.g., environment variables for ddtrace, RabbitMQ compatibility), leading to mistakes and configuration headaches.
Multi-tenant access control and cost attribution missing granularity
6Organizations managing 300+ customers with multiple instances/apps in Datadog face difficulties controlling access, enforcing privacy settings, and splitting usage/costs per customer. Lack of granular access control and cost customization makes multi-tenant deployments operationally complex and costly to manage.
Dashboard UI cluttered, slow-loading, and difficult to navigate
5Datadog's graphical user interface suffers from slow load times when drilling deep into subjects and lacks caching optimization. Dashboards feel cluttered and overwhelming for new users; navigation is non-intuitive. Default dashboards don't help teams ramp up faster, and session replay features are clunky. Minor issues like unit display and search syntax cumberousness add friction.