Datadog for Startups 🎁 Program

What you get

Datadog for Startups offers a year of free Datadog Pro, described as up to $100,000 in credits usable across the Datadog platform in your first year: infrastructure monitoring, APM, logs, real user monitoring and more.

Who qualifies

• Series A or earlier.
• You must apply through one of Datadog's official referral partners; direct applications are not accepted.
• You must be new to Datadog. Current or past customers, and companies that have received Datadog for Startups credits before, are excluded.

Good to know

• You can start a Datadog trial while your application is reviewed. Pick your data region carefully, because it cannot be changed later.
• You must confirm credit activation within 30 days of acceptance.
• If your account is inactive for three months you get a warning and 30 days to start using it before removal from the program.
• Datadog's FAQ says decisions take 3 to 5 business days.
• If you do not qualify, Datadog offers a 2-week trial to any company.

Verdict

A large perk if your investor or accelerator is a Datadog referral partner and you need serious observability. Watch costs carefully as the year ends, because Datadog's usage-based pricing can rise quickly. If your investor is not a partner, Sentry and PostHog in this category offer direct applications for error tracking and analytics. Before the year ends, review which Datadog products you really use and turn off the rest. Keep an eye on log volume in particular.

1. Ask your investor or accelerator whether they are an official Datadog referral partner and get their link.
2. Submit the application with information about your team through that partner.
3. Start a Datadog trial while you wait, choosing your region carefully.
4. Once accepted, confirm credit activation within 30 days and start sending data.