Arcjet vs Datadog Runtime Code Analysis (IAST): Side-by-Side Comparison (2026)

Short answer

Developers building APIs and web services need bot and rate-limit protection that doesn't require security expertise to deploy, and Arcjet's SDK-first approach means you configure rules in code rather than wrestling with WAF consoles. The WebAssembly-based local execution runs decisions at the edge without sending traffic to external services, cutting latency and keeping you compliant with data residency constraints. Skip this if your primary concern is legacy OWASP Top 10 coverage on existing monolithic applications; Arcjet is built for modern application stacks, not retrofitting old infrastructure. Development teams already running Datadog APM will see immediate payoff from Datadog Runtime Code Analysis (IAST) because vulnerability findings flow directly into the observability context you're already using, cutting investigation time versus bolted-on IAST tools. The integration eliminates the context-switching that kills adoption of security findings in dev workflows. Skip this if your organization uses a different APM vendor or runs applications Datadog doesn't instrument well; you'll be retrofitting data flow analysis onto a platform that wasn't designed around your stack.

Based on our analysis of core features, company size fit, deployment model, here is our conclusion: