Compare · updated 2026-08-24
Infrastructure monitoring: SolarWinds vs SigNoz vs AMP with Grafana vs Datadog Infrastructure
Per-node monitors charge on the count of hosts whether or not anyone reads them, while an open fleet on OpenTelemetry with an open source time series database you own removes the per-node licence from the ordinary tier entirely.
01The mechanics
What actually differs
The unit each option charges on, and who owns what afterwards, matter more than any single quoted figure.
Infrastructure monitoring is the tier where the pricing question is sharpest, because the work is the most commoditized: CPU, disk, process, and interface checks collect the same way everywhere. What differs is who owns the data, who owns the console, and whether the estate pays a licence per node for collection that an open collector does without one.
The comparison below is being assembled with a source and a checked date on every cell, and a row does not ship until every cell in it is sourced. The structural read is stable regardless: the per-node meter grows with the estate, the open options grow with usage or not at all, and the difference compounds at renewal.
02The honest row
When each is the right answer
Every option in this comparison is the right answer for somebody, and saying when is the part most comparisons leave out.
SolarWinds
The right answer when deep SNMP network monitoring is the core need and the ops team's fluency with the console carries real operational value that an immediate migration would burn.
SigNoz
The right answer for teams that want an open-core, OpenTelemetry-native platform with one tool across logs, metrics, and traces, and are comfortable operating or buying the hosted tier of a younger product.
AMP with Grafana
The right answer for AWS-heavy estates that want managed Prometheus economics, usage-based pricing, and dashboards they own, with the collection layer already on OpenTelemetry.
Datadog Infrastructure
The right answer when the estate already lives in Datadog and consolidation genuinely simplifies operations, on the hosts where the integration depth is used rather than merely billed.
03Questions
Asked about this comparison
Is replacing a per-node monitor risky?
The risk is managed by the parity bar: every alert and every rule is rebuilt on the open stack and proven to behave exactly as it does today, tier by tier and in writing, before a single host comes off per-node pricing. Until then both systems run in parallel.
What does the open alternative actually consist of?
The OpenTelemetry Collector on every host under OpAMP fleet control, an open source time series database you own, and alerts and dashboards as code in your repositories. No per-node or per-agent licence sits anywhere in that path, and the console you watch it from is yours, running in your own account.
Model it against your estate
The comparison that matters is the one run on your volumes and your contracts. The review reads them with you, and you leave with your version of the Logmetry Blueprint. No system access, no obligation.