Comparison
Datadog vs DriftRail
General APM vs purpose-built AI safety monitoring.
Datadog is a leading APM platform that has added LLM observability features. DriftRail is purpose-built for AI safety and governance. Here's how they compare.
Datadog LLM Observability
- Strengths: Unified platform, infrastructure context, existing dashboards
- LLM features: Tracing, latency, token usage, cost tracking
- Focus: Performance and operational metrics
DriftRail
- Strengths: AI-specific detections, compliance, guardrails
- Detections: 8 types including hallucination, toxicity, PII, prompt injection
- Focus: Safety, governance, and compliance
Key Differences
- Detection types: DriftRail has 8 AI-specific; Datadog has generic metrics
- Compliance: DriftRail has SOC2/GDPR/HIPAA reports; Datadog DIY
- Guardrails: DriftRail has inline blocking; Datadog monitor-only
- Benchmarks: DriftRail has industry comparisons; Datadog none
How does Datadog compare?
Datadog offers general APM with LLM tracing capabilities. DriftRail is purpose-built for AI safety with 8 detection types, compliance reports, and industry benchmarks. Datadog excels at infrastructure; DriftRail excels at AI-specific risks.
Can I use both?
Yes. Many teams use Datadog for infrastructure monitoring and DriftRail for AI safety. DriftRail exports to OpenTelemetry, so you can send AI metrics to Datadog while using DriftRail's specialized detections.
Purpose-built AI safety monitoring
8 detection types, compliance reports, and OTEL export.
Start Free — 10K events/month