Best Observability Apm · head-to-head
AppSignal vs Datadog APM
A sourced, side-by-side comparison for observability apm. AppSignal has the lower entry price. Every figure links to the vendor's own page and the date we captured it.
At a glance
- Price: AppSignal $0/mo vs Datadog APM $31/mo — AppSignal is cheaper to start.
- Free tier: AppSignal Yes; Datadog APM No.
- HIPAA: AppSignal Yes; Datadog APM Yes.
Side by side
| AppSignal | Datadog APM | |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | $0/mo (Free) | $31/mo (APM (with Infra)) |
| Free tier | Yes | No |
| HIPAA (BAA) | Yes | Yes |
| SOC 2 | — | Yes |
| GDPR | Yes | Yes |
| Best for | Ruby on Rails and Elixir/Phoenix teams wanting first-class language support | Enterprises running multi-cloud, multi-language stacks |
Sources — AppSignal: getapp.com (verified 2026-06-14). Datadog APM: datadoghq.com (verified 2026-06-14).
Key features
AppSignal: Only EU-based APM: infrastructure hosted in EU (AWS EMEA) for GDPR-first teams; ISO 27001 certified with regular third-party penetration testing; HIPAA BAA available as a paid add-on with PHI protection and breach notification; APM + error tracking + logging + uptime monitoring in a single platform; Unlimited apps, hosts, and team members on all plans
Datadog APM: Watchdog AI for automated anomaly detection and root cause analysis; End-to-end distributed tracing correlated with logs, metrics, and infrastructure; Continuous Profiler for code-level CPU/memory/IO visibility in production; Change tracking correlates deploys and feature flags with performance regressions; Native and hybrid OpenTelemetry ingestion with remote sampling controls