# OpenLIT vs Datadog LLM Observability

Datadog is a powerful general-purpose observability platform, but LLM monitoring is a paid add-on requiring existing Datadog infrastructure. OpenLIT is purpose-built for AI engineering, open-source, and free to self-host.

[Get Started with OpenLIT](https://docs.openlit.io/latest/introduction) [View on GitHub](https://github.com/openlit/openlit)

| Feature | OpenLIT | Datadog LLM Observability |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Core Architecture | | |
| OpenTelemetry-native |  | OTel ingestion supported; primary agent is proprietary |
| Open Source | Apache 2.0 |  |
| Self-hostable |  |  |
| Purpose-built for LLM / AI engineering |  |  |
| Free self-hosted tier |  |  |
| LLM Monitoring | | |
| Token usage tracking |  |  |
| Cost per request |  |  |
| Latency / p95 metrics |  |  |
| Prompt & response logging |  |  |
| 60+ integrations (LLMs, frameworks, VectorDBs, GPUs) |  | Limited LLM providers supported natively |
| Custom model pricing |  |  |
| Infrastructure Monitoring | | |
| GPU monitoring (NVIDIA + AMD) |  | General GPU metrics only, not LLM-context-aware |
| Vector DB tracing |  |  |
| Multi-environment tagging |  |  |
| Organisation management |  |  |
| Developer Tools | | |
| Prompt Hub (versioning) |  |  |
| Evaluations |  | Basic (LLM-as-judge) |
| Secrets Vault |  |  |
| Fleet Hub (multi-deployment) |  |  |
| Out-of-box LLM dashboards |  | Requires setup / add-on |
| Unified infra + APM + LLM observability |  |  |
| Pricing | | |
| Free self-hosted |  |  |
| No per-host agent fees |  |  |
| No usage-based billing (self-hosted) |  |  |
| LLM Observability cost | $0 (self-hosted) | Usage-based paid add-on on top of Datadog subscription |

## Choose OpenLIT when…

- You want purpose-built LLM observability without the overhead of a general APM platform
- You need to self-host for data privacy, compliance, or to avoid cloud vendor costs
- You want Prompt Hub, Vault, and Fleet Hub included as part of your AI engineering platform
- You prefer open standards (Apache 2.0, OpenTelemetry) over proprietary agents and lock-in
- You want GPU monitoring that is context-aware of LLM inference, not just system-level GPU metrics

## Choose Datadog LLM Observability when…

- You are already invested in Datadog and want a single pane of glass across all infrastructure
- You need enterprise-grade SLAs, SOC 2, HIPAA compliance, and dedicated support contracts
- You want unified alerting across LLM, APM, infrastructure, and logs in one existing platform

### More Comparisons

[OpenLIT vs Langfuse](/content/compare/openlit-vs-langfuse/index.html) [OpenLIT vs Helicone](/content/compare/openlit-vs-helicone/index.html) [OpenLIT vs LangSmith](/content/compare/openlit-vs-langsmith/index.html)