> The problem comes with cost estimation. Because there are so many axes, we can't just take our size and figure out a cost estimate, we have to model out different scenarios. Does a traffic spike for us equal a logging spike?

In the case of Datadog it’s even worse that they don’t allow you to cap costs. If you have an accidental spike (e.g. some deployment gone haywire and relaunching containers and suddenly you have 100x the amount of containers as usual in a 1 hour time span), they will not refund it. I had to plea a lot for me as a solo developer, and they ended up locking me into a 1 year contract in order to be reimbursed.

I’m convinced it’s entirely deliberate and they prey upon these types of things. It was a terrible, hostile experience, because I had to pay a huge sum I did not get any value out of. I was so scared of using their product for the rest of the year that I simply wrote off the yearly subscription as a loss.