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Dynatrace is the enterprise leader in AI-powered observability, founded in 2005 (source: dynatrace.com/careers/about, verified 2026-10-10), with Davis AI's deterministic causal analysis, and $2.136B in total ARR at Q1 FY2027 (quarter ended 2026-06-30), up 17% year over year and 17% in constant currency (source: Dynatrace Q1 FY2027 earnings release, ir.dynatrace.com, dated 2026-08-05, verified 2026-10-10). On 2026-10-01 Dynatrace announced that it has completed its acquisition of Arize, the AI observability and evaluation platform (source: Dynatrace press release, ir.dynatrace.com, dated 2026-10-01, verified 2026-10-10). We respect that. This page is an honest look at where DeepCube takes a different approach, where Dynatrace excels, and how you can evaluate both with the same production data.
DeepCube is the product; spatial observability is the category. We are not an APM company, we are a spatial observability company.
37 priced line items across 10 categories. Proprietary agents. A query language to learn.
Source: dynatrace.com/pricing/rate-card, verified 2026-10-10
The Complexity Tax
37 priced line items across 10 categories. Proprietary agents. A query language to learn.
- 37 priced line items across 10 categories, each with its own billing dimension and learning curve.
- Proprietary OneAgent: powerful auto-instrumentation with an OTLP receiver and a Dynatrace-maintained OTel Collector, but full Davis and Smartscape enrichment still depends on OneAgent-derived signals.
- DQL: a query language your team has to learn on top of everything else, adding cognitive overhead to every investigation.
Enterprise intelligence. One simple price.
What If You Got the Intelligence Without the Overhead?
One price. One agent standard. One spatial environment.
- Standard OpenTelemetry instrumentation, no proprietary agents to manage across your fleet.
- Single per-node price, AI included: no multi-dimensional billing to estimate and no per-unit AI billing. Nodes x tier price = monthly cost.
- AI assistant that speaks plain language: no query language to learn, no DQL syntax to memorize.
- Phantoms: when a call goes out and nothing ever reports back from the other side, or a consumer goes quiet while messages keep arriving, DeepCube draws the missing side where it should be, so you see what is missing, not only what is there.
Zero proprietary agents. Zero lock-in.
Architecture: How We Differ
OpenTelemetry exclusive vs proprietary OneAgent.
DeepCube is built exclusively on OpenTelemetry. No proprietary agents to install, license, or maintain. Your instrumentation works with any OTel-compatible backend, so you are never locked in.
Smartscape pioneered automatic topology mapping in observability. We respect that lineage. DeepCube builds on the same insight, that topology matters, and takes it into three dimensions. Dynatrace describes Smartscape as "an interactive map of your digital ecosystem" (source, retrieved 2026-10-10); in our characterization it is a 2D dependency graph viewed in a browser. DeepCube is a 3D spatial environment you navigate, with a desktop experience.
| Aspect | DeepCube | Dynatrace |
|---|---|---|
| Instrumentation | Standard OpenTelemetry SDKs only | Proprietary OneAgent (auto-instrumentation) |
| Data Ingestion | Full OTLP (gRPC + HTTP) | OneAgent proprietary protocol; native OTLP endpoint is HTTP/protobuf only. Dynatrace's own docs state it plainly: "gRPC is not supported. API calls need to use HTTP. You can use a Collector to transform a gRPC OTLP request to its HTTP counterpart." (source, verified 2026-08-19) |
| Topology Visualization | 3D spatial topology | Smartscape, which Dynatrace calls "an interactive map of your digital ecosystem"; we characterize it as a 2D dependency graph (source, retrieved 2026-10-10) |
| Vendor Lock-in | None. Change one endpoint URL to leave. | OneAgent proprietary, DQL query language, Grail data store |
| Query Language | Natural language via Tessa (no proprietary syntax) | DQL (Dynatrace Query Language) |
| Technology Coverage | OTel ecosystem (community-driven, any backend) | Broad technology support (no public count) |
AI in the node price. No per-unit AI billing.
| Capability | Tessa (DeepCube) | Davis AI (Dynatrace) |
|---|---|---|
| AI Approach | Conversational LLM with workspace access | Deterministic causal AI + predictive + generative layers |
| Root Cause Analysis | LLM reasoning over topology, traces, metrics | Deterministic graph algorithms (zero hallucination) |
| Codebase Access | Full workspace: read, search, rename, modify | Reaches your code from the IDE: Live Debugger runs in VS Code and JetBrains IDEs and sets breakpoints that "don't stop your code from running", capturing variables and stack traces from production. Live Debugger is generally available: Dynatrace Hub's release notes for app version 1.3.0 read "Releasing app for general availability", with no GA date printed (Hub). Through the remote Dynatrace MCP server, generally available per Dynatrace's February 2026 release radar ("our remote MCP server is now generally available", release radar, published 2026-03-02), coding agents such as GitHub Copilot pull live runtime context (source, IDE integration, verified 2026-10-10) |
| Code Fixes | Available on every plan. Tessa traces the issue to the source file in your connected workspace and proposes the change. You review the change and own the outcome. | Remediation runs through a coding agent: GitHub Copilot "verifies each vulnerability by querying Dynatrace MCP", confirmed vulnerabilities "are remediated in a pull request", and developers review and merge (source, verified 2026-10-10) |
| Spatial Context | 3D topology navigation | Smartscape topology, a 2D graph in our characterization (Smartscape docs, retrieved 2026-10-10) |
| Pricing | Included in the price of every plan, with no AI add-on required and no per-query AI meter. Model quality scales with the plan. | Metered AI. Agentic Operations is $0.10 per AI unit for tasks run through MCP, the API, workflows or custom apps. The same tasks inside Dynatrace Assist are not billed "for a limited time", a promotion Dynatrace says it "may modify or discontinue". Assist without query execution carries no licensing cost; the queries it runs are billed at rate-card consumption. Davis problems and events are included with Full-Stack Monitoring ($58/mo per 8 GiB host); the entry tier is Foundation & Discovery at $7/host/mo (source, AI FAQ, Events licensing, verified 2026-10-10) |
AI: Tessa vs Davis AI
Different philosophies, not better or worse.
Davis AI uses purpose-built graph algorithms for root cause analysis: deterministic, zero hallucination, and fast. It is the most sophisticated causal AI in observability and we say that honestly.
Tessa is a conversational LLM with direct workspace access. It reasons over the same topology data, explains root causes in plain language, works in your connected codebase workspace, and proposes the fix. You review, you own it. Working in your code is table stakes now, and Dynatrace reaches code too. The difference is where the investigation happens: in a 3D space you move through, not a 2D graph. And it is priced differently: Tessa's allowance is part of the per-node price, with no per-unit AI billing.
Dynatrace Assist, the evolution of Davis CoPilot introduced in early 2026, is the natural-language layer on top of Davis. Dynatrace reaches your code from two directions: Live Debugger (generally available) in VS Code and JetBrains IDEs captures production state without stopping your code, and the remote Dynatrace MCP server (generally available per the February 2026 release radar) feeds runtime context to coding agents such as GitHub Copilot, which open remediation pull requests for your developers to review (sources: dynatrace.com blog dated 2026-01-28, docs.dynatrace.com, Dynatrace Hub, release radar dated 2026-03-02, verified 2026-10-10).
One price. Everything included.
Pricing: The Full Picture
Scenario: 40 nodes, 10 engineers.
Dynatrace prices each capability separately across 37 priced line items. Here is what a realistic production deployment looks like when you combine the products most teams need.
- One price, not 37 line items: DeepCube includes APM, logs, and AI in one per-node price. Dynatrace bills hosts, pods, containers, GiB, sessions, and queries separately across 10 categories.
- No proprietary agent licensing: DeepCube uses standard OpenTelemetry. No OneAgent to deploy, license, or manage across your fleet.
- AI on every plan, one meter: Tessa is in the price of every DeepCube plan and works in your connected workspace to propose code fixes for you to review. Dynatrace's entry tier is Foundation & Discovery at $7/host/mo and Full-Stack is $58 per 8-GiB host. Dynatrace AI is metered: Agentic Operations is $0.10 per AI unit through MCP, the API, workflows and custom apps, and in-Assist use is free only "for a limited time" under a promotion Dynatrace "may modify or discontinue" (source, verified 2026-10-10). The queries Assist runs are billed at rate-card consumption, and the code-remediation path hands off to a separate GitHub Copilot subscription.
- Predictable math: Nodes x tier price = monthly cost. No multi-dimensional billing to estimate.
| Line Item | DeepCube | Dynatrace |
|---|---|---|
| Full-Stack Monitoring | Application monitoring (APM) included; infrastructure monitoring not tested | $58/host/mo x 40 = $2,320 (entry tier is Foundation & Discovery at $7/host/mo; Full-Stack with Davis AI is $58/host) |
| Log Analytics (500 GB/mo) | Included | $0.20/GiB ingest + retain costs (variable) |
| Kubernetes (40 pods) | Included | $1.40/pod/mo x 40 = $56 |
| AI | Included (Tessa), no per-unit AI billing | Davis included in Full-Stack; Agentic Operations metered at $0.10 per AI unit outside Assist (in-Assist use free for a limited time) |
| Estimated Monthly Total | $1,575 (Analyze, with volume pricing) | $2,376+ before logs, RUM and AI units |
Dynatrace pricing based on published rates from dynatrace.com/pricing, verified 2026-10-10. Actual costs vary by usage, host size, and contract terms. DeepCube Analyze at 40 nodes is (25 x $45) + (15 x $30) with graduated volume pricing, from deepcube.ai/pricing. All prices USD.
You don't have to rip and replace
Run Both. Migrate Gradually.
Same telemetry, two destinations, zero re-instrumentation.
- Dual-destination: Your OTel Collector fans out telemetry to both DeepCube and Dynatrace simultaneously.
- No code changes: If you already use OTel SDKs, your instrumentation does not change.
- If you use OneAgent: Keep it for existing services. New services start with OTel + DeepCube. Migrate at your own pace.
- Exit guarantee: If DeepCube is not right for you, change one endpoint URL. Your instrumentation stays exactly the same.
Dual-Destination Collector Config
exporters:
otlp/deepcube:
endpoint: "https://otlp.deepcube.ai"
headers:
API-Key: "YOUR-API-KEY"
otlp/dynatrace:
endpoint: "your-environment.live.dynatrace.com:4317"
headers:
Authorization: "Api-Token ${DT_API_TOKEN}"
service:
pipelines:
traces:
exporters: [otlp/deepcube, otlp/dynatrace]
metrics:
exporters: [otlp/deepcube, otlp/dynatrace]Standard OTel Collector config. Same telemetry, two destinations.
Ready to See the Difference?
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