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The main reasons to leave ThousandEyes are cost and deployment effort, according to Reddit users. One commenter also noted a 100-license minimum for Endpoint Agents and said the price was high. Our comparison lists ThousandEyes pricing as not published, so budget comparisons are difficult without a quote. Kentik is the most network-focused option here; Datadog, Grafana, Prometheus, New Relic, Dynatrace and Zabbix cover broader monitoring needs, but the published details don’t establish a like-for-like replacement for ThousandEyes path visibility.
01Why people leave ThousandEyes
High cost without public pricing
Our comparison lists ThousandEyes pricing as not published. Reddit users call it expensive, while one commenter says it works well.
Deployment takes substantial effort
A Reddit commenter says deployment and setup require a ton of effort. That can be hard to justify if your team needs a narrower monitoring tool.
Endpoint Agents may not fit small rollouts
One Reddit user reports a 100-license minimum and high pricing for PC agents. Another describes limited publicly available testing targets for some consumer services.
02The alternatives, ranked by fit
- Network performance monitoring
KentikKentikIf your priority is network investigation rather than broad observability, Kentik is the closest fit in this shortlist: it targets data center and cloud networks, traffic and performance analysis, and cloud egress costs. Our comparison lists a $2,000 starting price and also notes a free plan. Ask what that price covers and confirm the annual commitment before treating it as a cheaper switch.
Trade-off: The published details don’t confirm ThousandEyes-style global path visibility or endpoint testing.
6.0/10from
$2,000/mofree plan - Broad monitoring coverage
DatadogDatadogDatadog suits teams that want broad monitoring coverage or are consolidating observability and security tools. That may be a better fit than keeping a dedicated network-monitoring product if your needs span more than SaaS connectivity. Our comparison lists a $500 starting price, but doesn’t specify the billing basis or show what your full bill would be.
Trade-off: The listed starting price doesn’t establish coverage for ThousandEyes-style network paths.
6.7/10from
$500/mo - Flexible telemetry dashboards
GrafanaGrafanaGrafana is a candidate if your team already has multiple telemetry signals and wants configurable dashboards. Our comparison lists a free plan and a $19 Pro starting price, while warning that usage charges can add to the bill. It may make sense when you can manage usage costs and assemble the views your team needs.
Trade-off: The $19 Pro fee is only a starting point; usage charges can increase costs.
7.0/10from
$19/mofree plan - Open-source service monitoring
PrometheusPrometheusPrometheus is worth considering if your team wants open-source monitoring, cloud-native service monitoring and PromQL-based queries and alerts. Our comparison lists a free plan and no published starting price. It is a monitoring base rather than a confirmed drop-in for ThousandEyes; the comparison specifically notes that independent servers use local storage.
Trade-off: Independent servers use local storage, and you’ll need to manage your own setup.
7.6/10from
Freefree plan - All-in-one observability
New RelicNew RelicNew Relic is aimed at teams consolidating observability tools and prioritizing incident response. Our comparison lists a free plan and a $10 starting price, making it a lower listed entry point than ThousandEyes’ unpublished price. But it also warns that user and ingest costs can rise, so estimate usage before comparing bills.
Trade-off: User and ingest costs can rise; the listed starting price isn’t the whole bill.
7.5/10from
$10/mofree plan - Cloud-native observability
DynatraceDynatraceDynatrace is a fit to evaluate if you need broad observability coverage, especially in Kubernetes and cloud-native environments, or value topology-driven investigation. Our comparison lists a $7 starting price, but flags an annual commitment. Treat that as an entry figure, not a complete cost comparison with a ThousandEyes quote.
Trade-off: Our comparison flags an annual commitment; the $7 start may not reflect your cost.
6.8/10from
$7/mo - No per-host license fees
ZabbixZabbixZabbix is an option for experienced teams that want broad IT and OT infrastructure monitoring without per-host license fees. Our comparison lists a free plan and no published starting price. It may suit organizations willing to manage their own stack, but the published material doesn’t position it as a direct replacement for external path monitoring.
Trade-off: The comparison says it takes work to configure well.
7.6/10from
Freefree plan
03Side by side
| Tool | Score | From | Free plan | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 ThousandEyes ThousandEyes (current) | 7.1 | Custom | No | Teams troubleshooting SaaS connectivity |
| Kentik Kentik | 6.0 | $2,000/mo | Yes | Teams monitoring data center and cloud networks |
| Datadog Datadog | 6.7 | $500/mo | No | Teams seeking broad monitoring coverage |
| Grafana Grafana | 7.0 | $19/mo | Yes | Teams combining multiple telemetry signals |
| Prometheus Prometheus | 7.6 | Free | Yes | Teams wanting open-source monitoring |
| New Relic New Relic | 7.5 | $10/mo | Yes | Teams consolidating observability tools |
| Dynatrace Dynatrace | 6.8 | $7/mo | No | Teams needing broad observability coverage |
| Zabbix Zabbix | 7.6 | Free | Yes | Teams avoiding per-host license fees |
Questions people ask
How much does ThousandEyes cost?
Our comparison lists ThousandEyes pricing as not published, so there is no reliable starting price to compare here. Reddit users describe it as expensive, and one says Endpoint Agents have a 100-license minimum with a high price. Ask for a quote that separates the products and quantities you actually need.
What is the closest ThousandEyes alternative for network monitoring?
Kentik is the most network-focused option in this shortlist: our comparison lists data center and cloud network monitoring, traffic and performance investigation, and cloud egress analysis as use cases. The published details don’t confirm that it matches ThousandEyes’ global path visibility or endpoint testing, so validate those requirements before switching.
Are there free alternatives to ThousandEyes?
Our comparison lists free plans for Grafana, Prometheus, New Relic, Kentik and Zabbix. That does not establish that each free plan covers your required monitoring or replaces ThousandEyes. Grafana’s listed Pro price is $19, while Prometheus and Zabbix have no published starting price in the comparison.