Timber
Timber built Vector, an open-source observability pipeline tool written in Rust that collects, transforms, and routes logs and metrics across 47 sources and 62 sinks. Now owned by Datadog, it serves DevOps and platform engineering teams via free open-source distribution and Datadog Observability Pipelines.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2016
- HeadquartersNew York, United States
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Timber does
Timber was the original company that developed Vector, a lightweight, ultra-fast observability pipeline tool written entirely in Rust for collecting, transforming, and routing logs and metrics. Vector's architecture comprises configurable sources (data ingestion), transforms (data processing via the proprietary Vector Remap Language), and sinks (data destinations), with deployment flexibility across daemon, sidecar, and aggregator topologies. The platform supports 47 sources, 18 transforms, and 62 sinks covering AWS, Azure, GCP, Datadog, Splunk, Elasticsearch, Kafka, OpenTelemetry, and other major platforms. Distribution is a single memory-safe binary with no runtime dependencies, installable via one-liner script, package managers (APT, YUM, Homebrew), Docker, and Helm charts across Linux, macOS, and Windows on x86_64, ARM64, and ARMv7 architectures. Configuration supports YAML, TOML, and JSON formats, with multi-format auto-detection and templating.
The original Timber entity raised approximately $5.78M in disclosed seed and early-stage funding between 2016 and 2019 from investors including NextView Ventures, Notation Capital, Wonder Ventures, Ludlow Ventures, FirstMark, Lux Capital, and Conversion Capital. The company was subsequently acquired by Datadog, and Vector is now developed and maintained by Datadog's Community Open Source Engineering (COSE) team under MPL 2.0 licensing. Copyright is held by Datadog, Inc., and the legacy Timber distribution infrastructure (repositories.timber.io) was decommissioned in February 2024 in favor of apt.vector.dev and yum.vector.dev. The Timber.com brand reference in firmographics reflects the pre-acquisition entity; current operations are conducted under the Vector brand.
Vector's business model is dual-track: the core tool is free and open-source with zero direct revenue capture, while commercial monetization flows exclusively through Datadog Observability Pipelines, a managed product bundling Vector with enterprise monitoring, change management, and support. Target customers are DevOps and platform engineering teams managing observability data pipelines across hybrid and multi-cloud environments, with secondary demand from enterprise IT operations and cloud-native/Kubernetes environments. GTM motion is community-led and product-led-growth, leveraging GitHub, Discord, X/Twitter, and documentation as primary acquisition channels. The product has reached 30M+ downloads across 40 countries with 13k+ GitHub stars and 300+ contributors, indicating substantial community adoption.
Timber firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Timber
- Legal name
- Datadog, Inc.
- Website
- https://vector.dev
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2016
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- Timber built Vector, an open-source observability pipeline tool written in Rust that collects, transforms, and routes logs and metrics across 47 sources and 62 sinks. Now owned by Datadog, it serves DevOps and platform engineering teams via free open-source distribution and Datadog Observability Pipelines.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Where Timber is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- New York
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Markets served
Timber business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Personnel, Infrastructure, Operations, Marketing or Sales
Revenue model
- Open Source (Free): Vector is free and open source under the MPL 2.0 license. The core tool is available at no cost with no revenue generated directly from the software itself.
- Datadog Observability Pipelines (Commercial): Datadog offers Observability Pipelines, a commercial product that provides streamlined setup of Vector with out-of-the-box monitoring, change management, and enterprise support. This represents the primary commercial wrapper around the open-source Vector project.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | Others | Open Source (Free tier) |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels5 records
Marketing channels6 records
Timber product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Timber develops Vector, a lightweight, ultra-fast observability pipeline tool built in Rust that collects, transforms, and routes logs and metrics from any source to any destination as a single binary. The product supports 47 sources, 18 transforms, and 62 sinks covering major cloud providers, observability platforms, databases, and message queues, with programmable transformation via the Vector Remap Language (VRL). The commercial Datadog Observability Pipelines product wraps Vector with managed services, monitoring, change management, and enterprise support.
Product overview
Vector is a unified observability pipeline tool that serves as a single platform for collecting, transforming, and routing logs and metrics. Built entirely in Rust for performance and memory safety, Vector provides a vendor-neutral solution that connects to over 100 data sources and destinations including AWS, Azure, GCP, Datadog, Splunk, Elasticsearch, Kafka, and more. The product uses a component-based architecture with sources (data ingestion), transforms (data processing via VRL), and sinks (data destinations). Configuration supports YAML, TOML, and JSON formats. Vector operates as a single binary with no runtime dependencies, deployable across various roles and topologies. Datadog Observability Pipelines offers a managed version of Vector with streamlined setup and monitoring.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Vector A lightweight, ultra-fast observability pipeline tool built in Rust that collects, transforms, and routes logs and metrics from any source to any destination. Distributed as a single binary with no runtime dependencies, it is deployed by DevOps and platform engineering teams and enterprise IT operations as a daemon, sidecar, or aggregator under the MPL 2.0 license.
- Datadog Observability Pipelines Commercial managed observability pipeline product offered by Datadog that bundles Vector with monitoring, change management, and enterprise-grade support for organizations requiring managed deployments.
Quantifiable outcome
- Throughput improvements of up to 50% for common topologies compared to previous releases
- +2 more outcomes
Companies that use Timber
Customer profileSegments3 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Timber technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration56 records
Feature15 records
Timber partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
One partnership is on record.
- DatadogcoreDatadog is the primary maintainer and sponsor of the Vector open-source project. Vector is listed under Datadog's Observability Pipelines product, which bundles Vector with managed services and enterprise support. The Vector team is part of Datadog's Community Open Source Engineering (COSE) team. Copyright is held by Datadog, Inc.
Scale indicators4 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Timber competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Fluentd: Open-source unified logging layer under the CNCF that collects, transforms, and routes log data. Fluentd is the closest open-source competitor to Vector, sharing the same core use case of vendor-neutral log aggregation with a large plugin ecosystem.
- Fluent Bit: Lightweight, CNCF-graduated log and metrics processor derived from Fluentd, designed for high-performance, resource-constrained environments like Kubernetes. Fluent Bit competes head-to-head with Vector's daemon/sidecar deployments.
Market position
Strengths4 records
Weaknesses4 records
Competitive moat6 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Timber social profiles
Digital presenceTimber financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Timber leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles1 record
Timber funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds5 records
Investors8 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Timber M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Timber
What does Timber do?
Timber develops Vector, a lightweight, ultra-fast observability pipeline tool built in Rust that collects, transforms, and routes logs and metrics from any source to any destination as a single binary. The product supports 47 sources, 18 transforms, and 62 sinks covering major cloud providers, observability platforms, databases, and message queues, with programmable transformation via the Vector Remap Language (VRL). The commercial Datadog Observability Pipelines product wraps Vector with managed services, monitoring, change management, and enterprise support.
Is Timber a public or private company?
Timber is a private company. It is classified as corporate owned and is currently operating.
When was Timber founded?
Timber was founded in 2016. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Timber based?
Timber is headquartered in New York, United States, in the North America region.
How does Timber make money?
Two revenue lines are on record. Open Source (Free) is the primary driver. The others are datadog Observability Pipelines (Commercial).
Who are Timber's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Fluentd and Fluent Bit.
Does Timber have an API?
Yes. Vector provides a gRPC-based observability API that allows users to interact with a running Vector instance. The API exposes endpoints for health checks (GET/HEAD /health), listing components, and streaming events through Vector taps. It supports gRPC tooling for interaction and maintains HTTP health endpoints for compatibility with existing probes like AWS ALB and Kubernetes HTTP probes. The API does not support authentication and should only be enabled in isolated environments. Developer documentation is at vector.dev/docs/reference/api.