Migration tool in production — real results, real savings

Escape Datadog.
Keep your dashboards.

Shift Metrics automates migration of your Datadog dashboards, alert rules, and log monitors to Grafana LGTM — converting PromQL, building alert rules, and pushing everything via API. One-time fee. You own it forever.

Start Free Migration See how it works
shift-metrics-migrate
# Step 1: Export from Datadog
$ shift-migrate fetch --api-key $DD_API_KEY --app-key $DD_APP_KEY
✓ Fetched 512 dashboards, 406 monitors

# Step 2: Convert to Grafana format
$ dd-push --grafana-url http://grafana.local --dry-run
✓ 512 dashboards converted (73-100% fidelity)
✓ 66 alert rules ready to push
⚠ 340 TODO rules (SaaS metrics, no Prometheus equivalent)

# Step 3: Push to Grafana
$ monitor-push --grafana-url http://grafana.local *.json
✓ 66 alert rules created in Grafana
✓ 512 dashboards imported
Done. Cancel Datadog. Save $200K/year.
500+
Dashboards converted
550+
Alert rules processed
73–100%
Dashboard fidelity
$0/mo
After migration

Datadog is great at taking your money

The tooling is powerful. The bill is not. Here's what teams are dealing with.

Bills that compound

$100K–$500K/year for mid-size teams. Every new host, every log line, every trace adds to the tab — and the pricing page changes every year.

Vendor lock-in

Datadog query language, custom metrics format, proprietary alert syntax. Switching feels impossible because moving 500 dashboards by hand would take months.

Migration takes months

Teams that try to migrate manually spend 3–6 months hand-converting dashboards. Meanwhile Datadog keeps billing, and morale tanks halfway through.

Three commands. One migration.

Shift Metrics is a CLI tool that talks to both Datadog's API and Grafana's API. No SaaS middleman. Your data never leaves your network.

1

Fetch from Datadog

Export all dashboards and monitors via the Datadog API using your existing API key. No data leaves Datadog — you get local JSON files.

$ shift-migrate fetch \
--api-key $DD_API_KEY \
--app-key $DD_APP_KEY
✓ 512 dashboards, 406 monitors
2

Convert to Grafana

The converter handles Datadog query syntax → PromQL, widget types, alert expressions, log monitor selectors, and annotation metadata.

$ dd-push --dry-run
✓ Dashboard: 100% fidelity
✓ k8s alerts: 66 converted
⚠ SaaS monitors: TODO
3

Push to Grafana

Dashboards and alert rules are pushed via Grafana's provisioning API. Idempotent — re-run any time, existing rules update, nothing duplicates.

$ monitor-push \
--grafana-url http://grafana \
monitors/*.json
✓ 66 alert rules live

What gets converted automatically

Dashboards
  • ✓ Timeseries & gauges
  • ✓ Tables & stat panels
  • ✓ Heatmaps
  • ✓ Template variables
  • ✓ Row grouping
Alert Rules
  • ✓ Threshold monitors
  • ✓ Multi-metric arithmetic
  • ✓ change() → increase()
  • ✓ Kubernetes metrics
  • ✓ Warning + critical
Log Monitors
  • ✓ Log query → LogQL
  • ✓ Loki datasource rules
  • ✓ No-data handling
  • ✓ Count thresholds
  • ✓ Service filtering
PromQL Mapping
  • ✓ 80+ metric mappings
  • ✓ Label translation
  • ✓ Rate/increase wrapping
  • ✓ Aggregation functions
  • ✓ Filter expressions

What's your Datadog bill worth?

Drag the slider. See the math.

$10,000
$1K/mo $500K/mo
You pay Datadog yearly
$120,000
Shift Metrics license
$1,999
Professional tier
3-year savings
$358,000
ROI: 17,900%

You spend $1,999 once. Datadog would have billed you $360,000 over 3 years.

* Assumes $0/mo LGTM infra cost on existing Kubernetes cluster. Cloud hosting adds ~$200-500/mo for Mimir, Loki, Tempo at typical scale.

One-time pricing. No subscriptions.

You migrate once. You pay once. Then you own the tool, keep the savings, and never hear from us unless you want to.

Free
$0
Forever free
  • ✓ Up to 10 dashboards
  • ✓ Up to 10 alert rules
  • ✓ Dry-run mode
  • ✓ Full CLI access
  • – Email support
Download Free
Starter
$499
One-time payment
  • ✓ Unlimited dashboards
  • ✓ Unlimited alert rules
  • ✓ Dry-run & audit mode
  • ✓ 30-day email support
  • – Migration report
Get Starter
MOST POPULAR
Professional
$1,999
One-time payment
  • ✓ Everything in Starter
  • ✓ Migration health report
  • ✓ 90-day priority support
  • ✓ Metric mapping guidance
  • ✓ Slack channel access
Get Professional
Enterprise
$9,999+
One-time, custom scope
  • ✓ Everything in Pro
  • ✓ Hands-on with your team
  • ✓ Custom integrations
  • ✓ 12-month support SLA
  • ✓ NDA + invoicing
Contact Us
Optional: Post-migration support retainer

Teams mid-transition often add assets during their Datadog wind-down period. Our optional retainer ($299–499/month, 90-day cap) covers new dashboard conversions, metric validation questions, and report updates while you ramp down Datadog. Opt-in only — no auto-renewal.

Learn more

Why teams trust this tooling

Data never leaves your network

Shift Metrics is a CLI tool. It calls Datadog's API and your Grafana's API directly. Nothing goes through our servers.

Idempotent & reversible

Re-run as many times as you need. Existing dashboards update, nothing duplicates. Grafana backups before push are built in.

Built by engineers, for engineers

Written in Go. Open audit mode. Migration runs in CI/CD. You can read exactly what it's going to do before it does anything.

Frequently asked questions

What percentage of dashboards convert automatically?
In production use: 73–100% dashboard fidelity depending on widget complexity. Timeseries panels, gauges, tables, and stat panels convert at near-100%. Topology maps and some Datadog-proprietary widget types are flagged as TODO with a clear note. Alert rules: ~16% convert to full PromQL (Kubernetes metrics), ~8% to LogQL (log monitors), and ~76% are marked TODO because they reference SaaS integration metrics (AWS, Azure, third-party) that have no Prometheus equivalent.
What do I need to run this?
On the Datadog side: an API key and app key with read access to dashboards and monitors. On the Grafana side: a running Grafana instance (self-hosted or Grafana Cloud) with an admin API token. The tool is distributed as a single Go binary — no runtime dependencies. For alert rules, you'll also need a Mimir (or Prometheus) and optionally Loki datasource configured in Grafana.
What happens to monitors that can't convert?
They're pushed to Grafana as placeholder rules with a TODO comment in the expression, set to hidden so Grafana doesn't try to evaluate them. You get a full migration report listing every rule, its conversion status, and the reason it was skipped. Common reasons: anomaly/forecast monitors (ML-based, no PromQL equivalent), SaaS integration metrics (AWS CloudWatch, Azure Monitor, etc.), and service check monitors.
Do I need to be on Kubernetes?
No. Dashboard conversion works regardless of your infrastructure. Alert rule conversion works best for Kubernetes environments because Datadog's most popular monitors use kube-state-metrics equivalents. For non-k8s environments, the tool still converts what it can and documents what needs manual mapping. The Enterprise tier includes custom metric mapping for your specific stack.
Can I run this in CI/CD?
Yes. The tool is a stateless CLI that exits 0 on success and returns structured output. Use --dry-run in PR checks to validate changes before merging, and run the actual push in your deploy pipeline. All commands support environment variables for secrets. The push commands are idempotent — running them multiple times is safe.
What's your refund policy?
14-day no-questions-asked refund. If you run the tool and it doesn't do what we say, email us and we'll issue a full refund. We also offer a free tier specifically so you can validate it on real data before buying.

Ready to leave Datadog?

Start with the free tier — convert 10 dashboards and 10 alert rules right now. See the output before you spend a dollar.

Or email directly: info@shiftmetrics.com

Free tier, no card required 14-day refund guarantee Data stays in your network