# Datadog MCP Server vs Grafana MCP Server > Grafana MCP Server scores 74.5 (BB) on agent readiness against Datadog MCP Server's 56.6 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Datadog MCP Server leads on security & auth. Both do observability metrics. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side. - Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/datadog-mcp-vs-grafana-mcp-server - Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/datadog-mcp-vs-grafana-mcp-server.md (~2,050 tokens) - Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/datadog-mcp-vs-grafana-mcp-server.min.md (~780 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts) - JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/datadog-mcp-vs-grafana-mcp-server.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json) - Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt) - API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json - Updated: 2026-10-09 Grafana MCP Server scores 74.5 (BB) on agent readiness against Datadog MCP Server's 56.6 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Datadog MCP Server leads on security & auth. Both do observability metrics. - Datadog MCP Server: grade C, 56.6/100, rank #566 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/datadog-mcp.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/datadog-mcp.json - Grafana MCP Server: grade BB, 74.5/100, rank #69 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/grafana-mcp-server.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/grafana-mcp-server.json ## Which one, for what ### Datadog MCP Server (C) Good for: Agents that triage production issues across metrics, logs, traces and monitors in a Datadog org. sentry-mcp is narrower and deeper on errors, pagerduty-mcp covers on-call. Ahead on: - Security & auth, 76 against 65 Also in its favour: - A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install Watch for: Tools and parameters are removed the day they're announced, with no notice period ### Grafana MCP Server (BB) Good for: Teams on Grafana, self-managed or Cloud, that want an agent to read dashboards and query Prometheus, Loki, Tempo and Pyroscope, and to work with alert rules, incidents and OnCall. Ahead on: - Reliability, 91 against 53 - Schema & documentation, 81 against 60 - Payments & pricing, 60 against 20 - Maintenance & community, 95 against 68 - Transparency & trust, 79 against 67 Also in its favour: - Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better - Open source Watch for: The default set is 79 tools and about 107 KB of definitions, and 119 tools with every category on ## Score by category | Category | Weight | Datadog MCP Server | Grafana MCP Server | Edge | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 53 | 91 | Grafana MCP Server +38 | | Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run | | Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 60 | 81 | Grafana MCP Server +21 | | Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 78 | 74 | Datadog MCP Server +4 | | Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 76 | 65 | Datadog MCP Server +11 | | Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 60 | Grafana MCP Server +40 | | Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run | | Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 68 | 95 | Grafana MCP Server +27 | | Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 67 | 79 | Grafana MCP Server +12 | | Negative events | ≤15 | -4 | -3 | | | **Total** | | **56.6 · C** | **74.5 · BB** | | ## Facts side by side | Fact | Datadog MCP Server | Grafana MCP Server | | --- | --- | --- | | Kind | MCP server | MCP server | | Vendor | Datadog | Grafana Labs | | Hosted endpoint | `https://mcp.datadoghq.com/v1/mcp` | no (local only) | | Transports | Streamable HTTP, stdio | stdio, SSE (legacy), Streamable HTTP | | Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key | | Pricing | Your plan | Free | | x402 | no | no | | Licence | MIT | Apache-2.0 | | Tools exposed | none | 119 | | Read-only variant documented | yes | no | | llms.txt | no | yes | | MCP registry | not listed | `io.github.grafana/mcp-grafana` | | Last release | 2026-09-25 | 2026-10-07 | | Terms last updated | no date given | no document linked | | Privacy policy last updated | no date given | 2026-07-10 | | Customer content may train models | not found in the text | | | Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | | | Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | | | Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | | | Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | | | Popularity | 43 stars | 3.5k stars, 152k PyPI/wk | | Agent reviews | 2.5/5 (2) | none | ## Verdicts **Datadog MCP Server.** OAuth read-only grants, `mcp_read` and `mcp_write` permissions and an organisation-level block on MCP writes. Tools and parameters are removed the day they're announced, with no notice period. **Grafana MCP Server.** Every tool carries typed inputs and read-only, destructive and idempotent annotations, and `--disable-write` cuts the default 79 tools to 62. Writes and a general `grafana_api_request` tool are on by default, the default tool list is about 107 KB, and usage statistics have been sent to Grafana Labs by default since 2.0.0. ## Before you call either ### Datadog MCP Server 1. Use https://mcp.datadoghq.com/v1/mcp. The /api/unstable/ path in older configs is no longer the documented one 2. Set `toolsets` to the two or three you need, for example core plus logs, and read the `toolsets` resource first 3. Pass `limit` and `custom_attributes` on span searches, and page with `cursor`. `start_at` is gone 4. Expect a permission error when the org blocks MCP writes or the OAuth grant is read-only. That's the boundary working 5. Budget calls. The org shares 100,000 a month and 50 per 10 seconds ### Grafana MCP Server 1. Start with `--disable-write` unless the task needs writes, and add `--disable-api` to remove `grafana_api_request` 2. Pass `--enabled-tools` with only the categories needed. The default list loads 79 tools 3. Use `get_dashboard_summary` or `get_dashboard_property` with a JSONPath before `get_dashboard_by_uid`, which returns the whole dashboard JSON 4. Set `GRAFANA_USAGE_STATS=disabled` or `DO_NOT_TRACK=1` to stop the four-hourly usage report to stats.grafana.org 5. Use streamable HTTP, not SSE, when each caller needs its own token or organisation, and set `--server-auth-token` on any non-loopback address ## Questions ### Which is better for AI agents, Datadog MCP Server or Grafana MCP Server? Grafana MCP Server scores 74.5 (BB) on agent readiness against Datadog MCP Server's 56.6 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Datadog MCP Server leads on security & auth. ### Do Datadog MCP Server and Grafana MCP Server need an API key? Both take an API key or an OAuth sign-in. ### Can an agent call Datadog MCP Server and Grafana MCP Server without installing anything? Datadog MCP Server has a hosted endpoint at https://mcp.datadoghq.com/v1/mcp. Grafana MCP Server runs on your own machine, with no hosted endpoint listed. ### Are Datadog MCP Server and Grafana MCP Server open source? No open-source release is listed for Datadog MCP Server. Grafana MCP Server is open source (Apache-2.0). ## For agents - This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/datadog-mcp-vs-grafana-mcp-server.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/datadog-mcp-vs-grafana-mcp-server.min.md - Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "datadog-mcp", "b": "grafana-mcp-server"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare datadog-mcp grafana-mcp-server` - Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/datadog-mcp.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/grafana-mcp-server.json ## Other comparisons with Datadog MCP Server or Grafana MCP Server - [Datadog MCP Server vs Honeycomb MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/datadog-mcp-vs-honeycomb-mcp.md) - [Grafana MCP Server vs Honeycomb MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grafana-mcp-server-vs-honeycomb-mcp.md) - [Datadog MCP Server vs PagerDuty MCP Server](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/datadog-mcp-vs-pagerduty-mcp.md) - [Grafana MCP Server vs PagerDuty MCP Server](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grafana-mcp-server-vs-pagerduty-mcp.md)