Best Monitoring Tools for Small Infrastructure Teams

The Small Team Challenge

Small infrastructure teams (1-10 engineers) face a unique problem:

• You need to know when things break
• You can't dedicate someone to monitoring full-time
• Enterprise tools are overkill and expensive
• But going without monitoring isn't an option

The solution is simple, reliable monitoring that doesn't require babysitting.

What Small Teams Actually Need

Must-Haves

• Uptime monitoring: Know when services go down
• Server metrics: CPU, memory, disk basics
• Alerting: Notifications where you'll see them
• Low maintenance: Set up once, works forever

Nice-to-Haves

• Status pages: Keep users informed
• Incident management: Track issues systematically
• Team features: On-call schedules, escalation

Usually Overkill

• Full APM/tracing
• Custom metrics pipelines
• Log aggregation at scale
• ML-powered anomaly detection

You can add these later. Right now, you need basics that work.

Top Picks for Small Teams

1. Wakestack

Best for: Combined server + uptime monitoring

One tool that covers both infrastructure and availability. Install an agent, get metrics. Add uptime checks for external visibility.

Why it works for small teams:

• Single pane of glass
• Agent handles server metrics automatically
• Uptime checks for external services
• Sensible alerting defaults
• No complex configuration

Pricing: Scales with hosts, cost-effective for small setups

2. Datadog (Carefully)

Best for: Teams that will grow significantly

Datadog is powerful, but expensive. It works for small teams if you:

• Use only what you need (infrastructure, not everything)
• Watch costs carefully (per-host pricing adds up)
• Don't enable every integration

Why it might work:

• Excellent product
• Great integrations
• Scales as you grow

Warning: Costs can explode. Set budgets and alerts.

3. Better Stack

Best for: Modern stack with logs + monitoring

Combines uptime monitoring with logging in a clean package. Good for teams that want to centralize observability.

Why it works for small teams:

• Modern, intuitive interface
• Reasonable pricing
• Uptime + logs in one place
• Fast setup

4. Grafana Cloud Free Tier

Best for: Teams comfortable with Grafana

If you know Grafana, the free tier offers solid monitoring capabilities without the cost.

Why it works:

• Generous free tier
• Familiar interface
• Prometheus/Loki ecosystem
• Can grow with you

Caveat: Requires more setup than hosted alternatives.

5. Netdata

Best for: Real-time server monitoring, budget-conscious

Open source with excellent real-time visualization. Free to self-host, paid cloud option available.

Why it works for small teams:

• Free self-hosted option
• Beautiful real-time dashboards
• Low resource overhead
• Easy installation

Caveat: Self-hosted requires maintenance.

Comparison Matrix

Decision Framework

You want simplicity above all else

→ Wakestack or Better Stack

Set up quickly, minimal ongoing maintenance.

You'll grow to 50+ servers

→ Datadog (with cost discipline)

Best-in-class, but manage spending carefully.

You're comfortable with open source

→ Grafana Cloud or Netdata

More control, lower cost, more setup work.

You have literally zero budget

→ Netdata (self-hosted) + UptimeRobot (free tier)

Gets the job done for $0/month.

Setting Up for Success

Start with These Monitors

1. CPU usage (alert at 90%)
2. Memory usage (alert at 85%)
3. Disk usage (alert at 80%)
4. Website uptime (alert on failure)
5. API health endpoint (alert on failure)

That's it. Five monitors cover most small team needs.

Configure Alerts Properly

• Send to Slack/Teams where you'll see them
• Set up phone/PagerDuty for critical issues only
• Avoid email-only alerts (they get lost)

Create a Basic Runbook

For each alert, document:

• What the alert means
• First troubleshooting steps
• Who to escalate to

One page per alert type. Keep it simple.

Common Mistakes

Buying Enterprise Tools

Enterprise tools aren't better—they're designed for different problems. A 5-person team doesn't need what a 500-person team needs.

Monitoring Everything

Every metric you add is a metric you need to care about. Start minimal, add when you find gaps.

Ignoring False Positives

If an alert fires but nothing's wrong, fix the alert. Don't train yourself to ignore alerts.

No On-Call Strategy

Even small teams need to know who responds when. A simple weekly rotation beats chaos.

Scaling Up Later

When you outgrow basic monitoring, add:

1. APM when you need to debug slow requests
2. Log aggregation when you're drowning in logs
3. Custom metrics when business metrics matter
4. Distributed tracing when microservices get complex

But only when you actually need them. Premature complexity costs time and money.

Summary

Small teams need monitoring that:

• Sets up quickly
• Requires minimal maintenance
• Provides clear visibility
• Doesn't break the bank

Start with a simple tool that covers uptime and basic server metrics. Add complexity only when you genuinely need it.

The best monitoring setup for a small team is one that runs itself while you focus on building your product.