What is Datadog Agent used for?

Datadog Agent is the open-source software that runs on hosts to collect metrics, logs and traces and send them to the Datadog monitoring platform. It is a good fit for monitoring servers and containers with Datadog, and inspecting how the Datadog collector works.

Is Datadog Agent open source?

Yes. Datadog Agent is open source under the Apache-2.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at DataDog/datadog-agent and is written mainly in Go.

Is Datadog Agent free?

Yes. Datadog Agent is open source, so the software itself is free to use. A managed cloud version is also available.

Can I self-host Datadog Agent?

Yes. Datadog Agent can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.

What are some alternatives to Datadog Agent?

Similar open-source tools in the Monitoring & Observability category include Telegraf, SigNoz and Grafana Loki. SaaS products in the same category include Azure Monitor, Coralogix and Google Cloud Observability.

Is Datadog Agent actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to Datadog Agent was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is 7.84.0, published on 30 September 2026. The project has 3.8k stars on GitHub.

Datadog Agent: open-source monitoring & observability

About Datadog Agent

The Datadog Agent repository contains the source code of Agent versions 6 and 7, the software installed on servers, containers and other hosts to gather telemetry for Datadog. It is written in Go and covers metrics, logging, distributed tracing and profiling, with OpenTelemetry support listed among the repository topics.

The README points to user documentation explaining the differences between Agent 5, 6 and 7, a list of prepackaged binaries for easy installation, and a developer documentation site with guidance on contributing, development requirements and contribution guidelines. Teams use the Agent to instrument infrastructure and applications for Datadog, and contributors can inspect or extend it.

The Agent code is licensed under Apache-2.0, but it reports to Datadog's commercial monitoring service, which is hosted and billed by the vendor. It suits teams already using or evaluating Datadog who want to see how the collector works.

Key features

Metrics collection from hosts
Log collection and forwarding
Distributed tracing and APM agent
Support for profiling data
Integration with OpenTelemetry
Prepackaged installation binaries

Good fit for

→Monitoring servers and containers with Datadog
→Inspecting how the Datadog collector works

Built with: Go
Tags: monitoring; observability; metrics; logging; tracing; datadog; golang; agent

Datadog Agent: questions and answers

What is Datadog Agent used for?: Datadog Agent is the open-source software that runs on hosts to collect metrics, logs and traces and send them to the Datadog monitoring platform. It is a good fit for monitoring servers and containers with Datadog, and inspecting how the Datadog collector works.
Is Datadog Agent open source?: Yes. Datadog Agent is open source under the Apache-2.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at DataDog/datadog-agent and is written mainly in Go.
Is Datadog Agent free?: Yes. Datadog Agent is open source, so the software itself is free to use. A managed cloud version is also available.
Can I self-host Datadog Agent?: Yes. Datadog Agent can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.
What are some alternatives to Datadog Agent?: Similar open-source tools in the Monitoring & Observability category include Telegraf, SigNoz and Grafana Loki. SaaS products in the same category include Azure Monitor, Coralogix and Google Cloud Observability.
Is Datadog Agent actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to Datadog Agent was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is 7.84.0, published on 30 September 2026. The project has 3.8k stars on GitHub.