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10 Best Observability Platforms of 2026
This list is for platform engineers, SRE teams and engineering leads who need one place to watch metrics, logs and traces across many services. It covers full-stack commercial suites (Datadog, New Relic, Dynatrace, Splunk Observability Cloud), open source based platforms (Grafana Cloud, Elastic Observability, SigNoz), a tracing-first tool (Honeycomb) and two platforms priced mainly per GB of data (Coralogix, Better Stack). We compared documented features and published prices for 10 tools. Scores weigh features at 40%, ease of use at 30% and value at 30%.
By the Mojolin research desk · Updated November 9, 2026 · 10 tools compared · Prices checked on vendor pages, latest November 9, 2026
Questions or corrections: editorial@mojolin.com
Mojolin is self-funded How we score
Datadog is our top pick for most platform and SRE teams: infrastructure monitoring, APM, logs, on-call and AI investigation live in one product with more than 1,000 integrations, and Infrastructure Pro starts at $15 per host per month billed annually. Grafana Cloud is a close second and the better value for teams already on Prometheus, Loki or OpenTelemetry, with a free tier for all services and a $19 monthly platform fee on Pro. New Relic ranks third for teams that prefer billing by data and users, since every account gets 100 GB of free ingest each month. Honeycomb is the pick for teams that debug through high-cardinality traces, and Dynatrace suits large enterprises that want automated root cause analysis across a big estate.
Top picks
Best overall
Datadog
8.8 / 10
Platform and SRE teams that want one full-stack tool with the widest set of integrations.
Read the review →Runner-up
Grafana Cloud
8.7 / 10
Teams that run Prometheus or OpenTelemetry and want usage-based pricing with a large free tier.
Read the review →Also great
New Relic
8.6 / 10
Teams that want broad APM and infrastructure coverage with a large free data allowance.
Read the review →Comparison table
| # | Tool | Pricing | Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Datadog | Platform and SRE teams that want one full-stack tool with the widest set of integrations. | Infrastructure Pro from $15 per host per month billed annually ($18 on demand); Enterprise from $23; APM, logs and other products priced separately | 8.8 |
| 2 | Grafana Cloud | Teams that run Prometheus or OpenTelemetry and want usage-based pricing with a large free tier. | Free tier for all services; Pro from a $19 monthly platform fee plus usage; Enterprise from a $25,000 annual commit | 8.7 |
| 3 | New Relic | Teams that want broad APM and infrastructure coverage with a large free data allowance. | Free tier with 100 GB ingest per month and one full platform user; full platform users from $10 per user on Standard; data beyond 100 GB at $0.40 per GB | 8.6 |
| 4 |  Honeycomb | Engineering teams that debug production by querying wide events and traces rather than dashboards. | Free plan with up to 20M events per month; Pro from $150 per month; Enterprise custom | 8.5 |
| 5 |  Dynatrace | Large enterprises that want automatic discovery and root cause analysis across big hybrid estates. | Foundation & Discovery from $7 per host per month; Infrastructure Monitoring from $29; Full-Stack Monitoring from $58 per 8 GiB host; 15-day free trial | 8.4 |
| 6 |  Elastic Observability | Teams with heavy log volumes that want strong search and the option to self-host. | Serverless pricing per GB: ingest as low as $0.07 per GB and retention as low as $0.017 per GB per month; free trial; self-managed download available | 8.3 |
| 7 |  SigNoz | Cost-conscious teams that want an OpenTelemetry-native platform with no host or user fees. | Self-hosted Community edition free; SigNoz Cloud Teams from $49 per month including $49 of usage; Enterprise from $4,000 per month | 8.3 |
| 8 |  Better Stack | Small and mid-size teams that want telemetry, uptime checks and on-call in one affordable tool. | Free plan for personal projects; responder licenses from $29 per month billed annually ($34 monthly); telemetry billed per GB | 8.2 |
| 9 |  Coralogix | Teams with high log volumes that want per-GB pricing and data kept in their own storage. | Logs $0.42 per GB, traces $0.16 per GB, metrics $0.06 per GB; 14-day free trial with all features | 8.2 |
| 10 |  Splunk Observability Cloud | Enterprises already on Splunk that want observability tied to their logging and security data. | Infrastructure from $15 per host per month billed annually; App & Infra from $60; End-to-End from $75 | 8.1 |
Scoring weights
Every tool gets three editorial scores out of 10, from vendor documentation, product pages and the published price. The overall score is the weighted average below, the same method on every list. Full method
The full ranking
Rank 1 · Best overall
Datadog
Cloud monitoring and security platform covering infrastructure, APM, logs, on-call and AI investigation in one product.
datadoghq.com8.8
out of 10
Best for: Platform and SRE teams that want one full-stack tool with the widest set of integrations.
Datadog is the most complete observability platform on this list. Infrastructure Pro starts at $15 per host per month billed annually and includes container monitoring, 100 custom metrics per host, unlimited alerts, OpenTelemetry support and 15 months of metric retention. From there, teams add APM with distributed tracing, log management, real user monitoring, synthetics, On-Call paging and security products, all sharing the same tags, dashboards and agent.
That breadth is why many SRE teams standardize on Datadog: a single query can move from a host metric to the trace and the log line behind an error, and Bits AI can run an investigation across that data. The tradeoff is cost control. Every product is billed on its own unit, such as hosts for APM, ingested GB for logs and seats for On-Call, and custom metrics above the allotment cost extra. Teams that set up usage attribution and log pipelines early keep the bill predictable; teams that skip that step often see surprises.
Standout feature
More than 1,000 integrations feed infrastructure, APM, logs and on-call that share one set of tags.
Use cases
SRE teams
Jump from a latency alert to the slow trace and its correlated logs
Outcome: Faster root cause during incidents
Platform teams
Monitor Kubernetes clusters, cloud services and hosts with prebuilt integrations
Outcome: Full estate coverage without custom exporters
On-call engineers
Page responders by SMS, voice or push from the same tool that raised the alert
Outcome: One place for detection and response
Key features
- Infrastructure monitoring with 1,000+ integrations, container monitoring and OpenTelemetry support
- APM with distributed tracing, sold standalone from $36 per host per month billed annually
- Log management with ingest from $0.10 per GB and out-of-the-box parsing for 200+ log sources
- 15 months of metric retention on infrastructure plans
- On-Call paging, Bits AI investigation and an MCP server in the same platform
Pros
- Covers infrastructure, applications, logs, security and on-call in one product
- Infrastructure Pro includes 100 custom metrics and 5 containers per host
- Unlimited alerts on every infrastructure plan
Cons
- Each product is priced separately, so bills grow as you add APM, logs and more
- Custom metrics beyond the per-host allotment are billed on usage
- The Basic infrastructure tier is only priced through sales
Rank 2 · Runner-up
Grafana Cloud
Managed Grafana observability stack for metrics, Loki-based logs, traces, profiles and testing.
grafana.com8.7
out of 10
Best for: Teams that run Prometheus or OpenTelemetry and want usage-based pricing with a large free tier.
Grafana Cloud is the strongest value on this list for teams that already speak Prometheus, Loki or OpenTelemetry. The free tier covers every service, including 10k active metric series and 50 GB each of logs, traces and profiles a month with 14 days of retention, which is enough to run a real staging environment. Pro adds a $19 monthly platform fee, then usage: metrics from $6.50 per 1k series, logs and traces billed on process, write and retain rates, and host-hour pricing for Kubernetes and application observability.
Beyond raw telemetry, Grafana Cloud ships Kubernetes monitoring, application and frontend observability, database observability, synthetics, k6 load testing and incident response. Adaptive Metrics and Adaptive Logs suggest which series and log patterns to drop, which matters at scale. The tradeoff is that you assemble more of the experience yourself than in Datadog, and several separate meters need watching. Enterprise starts at a $25,000 annual commit for custom retention and premium support.
Standout feature
A free tier that includes every Grafana Cloud service, then Pro from a $19 monthly platform fee.
Use cases
Platform teams
Move self-hosted Prometheus and Loki to a managed backend
Outcome: Less time running storage clusters
Startups
Run metrics, logs and traces on the free tier for early services
Outcome: Full observability before the first bill
SRE teams
Use Adaptive Metrics to aggregate unused high-cardinality series
Outcome: Lower metrics spend without losing dashboards
Key features
- Metrics, logs, traces and profiles in one managed stack
- Free tier with 10k active metric series and 50 GB each of logs, traces and profiles per month
- Adaptive Metrics and Adaptive Logs to cut unused telemetry
- Kubernetes, application, frontend and database observability
- Grafana Assistant, synthetic testing, k6 performance tests and incident response
Pros
- Free tier includes every Grafana Cloud service, with no credit card
- Pro keeps metrics for 13 months and logs and traces for 30 days
- Volume discounts apply automatically as usage grows
Cons
- Usage-based bills need monitoring across several meters
- Pro support is 8x5 email only
- Custom retention and premium support need the $25,000 per year Enterprise commit
Rank 3 · Also great
New Relic
Full-stack observability platform with 50+ capabilities, billed on data ingested and user type.
newrelic.com8.6
out of 10
Best for: Teams that want broad APM and infrastructure coverage with a large free data allowance.
New Relic packs more than 50 capabilities into one platform, including APM with distributed tracing, infrastructure monitoring, log management, browser, mobile and synthetic monitoring, and AIOps. Its pricing is the main draw for smaller teams: every account gets 100 GB of free data ingest a month, unlimited basic users and one full platform user, without a credit card. Beyond that, data costs $0.40 per GB and users are billed by type, with full platform users starting at $10 per user on Standard and core users from $49.
Standard caps you at 5 full platform users, so growing teams move to Pro, which removes that cap, adds a 2-hour critical support response and offers full consumption pricing with no user licenses. Enterprise adds FedRAMP Moderate and HIPAA eligibility with Data Plus. The model is easy to understand, but per-user costs grow quickly once many engineers need the full platform, so compare it against host-based quotes.
Standout feature
Every account includes 100 GB of free data ingest per month and unlimited basic users.
Use cases
Small engineering teams
Instrument APM, logs and infrastructure on the free tier
Outcome: Production visibility without a contract
Developers
See errors and telemetry for their code inside the IDE
Outcome: Fewer context switches when debugging
Regulated companies
Use Enterprise with Data Plus for FedRAMP Moderate and HIPAA needs
Outcome: Observability that meets compliance rules
Key features
- APM with distributed tracing, infrastructure monitoring and log management
- Browser, mobile and synthetic monitoring for digital experience
- 100 GB of free data ingest every month, then $0.40 per GB
- Three user types: free basic, core and full platform
- AIOps and error tracking, with telemetry in the IDE through CodeStream
Pros
- Perpetual free tier with 100 GB of ingest and no credit card
- Unlimited free basic users for dashboards and alert views
- Pro and Enterprise offer full consumption pricing with no user licenses
Cons
- Standard is limited to 5 full platform users
- Full platform seats add up for large engineering teams
- Advanced compute features are billed separately
Rank 4
Honeycomb
Event-based observability platform for debugging distributed systems through high-cardinality traces.
honeycomb.io8.5
out of 10
Best for: Engineering teams that debug production by querying wide events and traces rather than dashboards.
Honeycomb approaches observability from the trace and the wide event rather than the host. You send structured events, usually through OpenTelemetry, and query them by any field, so questions like which customer, build or region is slow can be answered without predefined metrics. BubbleUp compares outlier requests with the baseline and highlights what differs, and Canvas AI Copilot helps build queries during an investigation.
Pricing follows event volume. The Free plan covers up to 20M events and 100M metric data points a month, with distributed tracing, BubbleUp, Honeycomb Metrics and 2 triggers. Pro starts at $150 per month for up to 750M events and adds 100 triggers, 2 SLOs and SSO. Enterprise adds a service map, Refinery support, AWS PrivateLink and private cloud options. Teams that want host-level infrastructure dashboards will usually pair Honeycomb with another metrics tool, but for debugging microservices it is one of the fastest tools here.
Standout feature
BubbleUp shows what sets slow or failing requests apart across any field in your events.
Use cases
Backend engineers
Find which tenant or endpoint drives a latency spike with BubbleUp
Outcome: Root cause in a few queries
SRE teams
Define SLOs on request success and alert on burn rate
Outcome: Alerts tied to user impact
Teams adopting OpenTelemetry
Send traces from instrumented services to the free plan
Outcome: A tracing backend without a contract
Key features
- Distributed tracing with BubbleUp to surface what differs in outlier requests
- Honeycomb Metrics and Canvas AI Copilot for guided investigation
- OpenTelemetry support and a Honeycomb MCP server
- Triggers and Service Level Objectives
- Refinery support and Honeycomb Private Cloud on Enterprise
Pros
- Free plan covers up to 20M events and 100M metric data points a month
- Pricing is based on event volume, not hosts or seats
- Strong at slicing traces by any high-cardinality field
Cons
- Free plan includes only 2 triggers
- Pro includes 2 SLOs; Enterprise starts with 100
- Less focused on host and infrastructure monitoring than full-stack suites
Rank 5
Dynatrace
Enterprise observability platform with automated topology discovery and AI root cause analysis.
dynatrace.com8.4
out of 10
Best for: Large enterprises that want automatic discovery and root cause analysis across big hybrid estates.
Dynatrace is built for large estates where manual instrumentation and service mapping do not scale. Its agent detects hosts, processes and service dependencies automatically, and Full-Stack Monitoring adds APM, code-level profiling, Kubernetes platform monitoring and automated root cause analysis for end-to-end transactions. Log analytics, digital experience monitoring and application security extend the same platform.
Pricing is published per host: Foundation & Discovery starts at $7 per host per month, Infrastructure Monitoring at $29 and Full-Stack Monitoring at $58 per 8 GiB host, billed by the hour. Logs can be bought pay-per-query, with ingest at $0.20 per GiB. All of it runs through the Dynatrace Platform Subscription, which needs a minimum annual spend commitment, so it is not a tool for small teams to try casually beyond the 15-day trial. In return, there are no per-seat fees, which suits enterprises that want every engineer and operator in the platform.
Standout feature
Automatic topology discovery feeds AI root cause analysis, with no per-seat fees.
Use cases
Enterprise IT operations
Map dependencies across hybrid cloud and data center hosts automatically
Outcome: An accurate service topology without manual upkeep
SRE teams
Use automated root cause analysis on failing transactions
Outcome: Shorter triage on complex outages
Large engineering orgs
Give every engineer platform access without buying seats
Outcome: Shared visibility at no extra license cost
Key features
- Full-Stack Monitoring with APM, automated root cause analysis and code-level profiling
- Host and process topology detection
- Kubernetes platform monitoring and OpenTelemetry metrics and traces
- Log analytics with pay-per-query pricing from $0.20 per GiB ingested
- Trace retention of 10 days, extendable to 10 years
Pros
- No per-seat fees: every team member gets full platform access
- Automatic topology mapping cuts manual service setup
- Three infrastructure and application tiers to match each host's needs
Cons
- Platform subscription requires a minimum annual spend commitment
- Full-Stack is priced per 8 GiB of host memory, so large hosts cost more
- The platform has more concepts to learn than lighter tools
Rank 6
Elastic Observability
Observability on the Elastic Stack, offered as serverless, hosted cloud or self-managed Elasticsearch.
elastic.co8.3
out of 10
Best for: Teams with heavy log volumes that want strong search and the option to self-host.
Elastic Observability brings logs, metrics, traces and synthetics onto the Elastic Stack, which many teams already use for search and log analysis. On Elastic Cloud Serverless there are two tiers. Logs Essentials covers ad hoc log analysis, dashboards, integrations and alerts. Complete adds curated experiences for metrics, traces and synthetic tests, Service Level Objectives, machine learning and AI-assisted parsing pipelines.
Serverless pricing is per GB, with ingest as low as $0.07 per GB, retention as low as $0.017 per GB per month and 50 GB of free egress before $0.05 per GB. That suits log-heavy workloads where search speed matters. Teams with data residency rules can instead run Elastic Cloud Hosted on their chosen cloud or download and self-manage Elasticsearch. The tradeoff is setup: the APM and infrastructure views are less turnkey than Datadog or Dynatrace, and self-managed clusters need people who know Elasticsearch well.
Standout feature
The same observability stack runs serverless, hosted or fully self-managed.
Use cases
Platform teams with large log volumes
Search terabytes of application logs during an incident
Outcome: Quick answers from full-text queries
Regulated companies
Run self-managed Elasticsearch for observability data
Outcome: Telemetry that stays on their own infrastructure
SRE teams
Define SLOs on the Complete tier from existing logs and traces
Outcome: Reliability targets tracked in the same stack
Key features
- Serverless Logs Essentials tier for ad hoc log analysis, dashboards and alerts
- Complete tier with curated logs, metrics, traces and synthetics experiences
- Service Level Objectives and machine learning on the Complete tier
- AI-assisted pipelines and parsing
- Deploy serverless, on Elastic Cloud Hosted or self-managed
Pros
- Strong full-text search across large log volumes
- Serverless removes cluster management
- Self-managed option for teams that must keep data on their own infrastructure
Cons
- Usage pricing has separate ingest, retention and egress meters
- Egress beyond 50 GB a month costs $0.05 per GB
- Self-managed clusters need Elasticsearch expertise
Rank 7
SigNoz
Open source, OpenTelemetry-native observability platform for logs, traces and metrics, self-hosted or in the cloud.
signoz.io8.3
out of 10
Best for: Cost-conscious teams that want an OpenTelemetry-native platform with no host or user fees.
SigNoz is an open source observability platform built on OpenTelemetry, covering logs, traces and metrics in one interface. Teams can self-host the Community edition for free or use SigNoz Cloud, where the Teams plan starts at $49 a month and that amount counts toward usage. After that, logs and traces cost $0.3 per GB ingested and metrics $0.1 per million samples, with retention options from 15 days up to a year.
The pricing model is the main reason to pick it: there is no charge per user, per host or for custom metrics, which keeps bills flat as teams and clusters grow. Cloud adds SSO and SAML, setup help for dashboards and alerts, SOC2 Type II and HIPAA compliance, and data centers in the US, EU and India. Enterprise starts at $4,000 a month for dedicated cloud, BYOC or supported self-hosting. The integration catalog and AI features are thinner than the largest suites, so it fits teams comfortable with OpenTelemetry.
Standout feature
No user, host or custom metric pricing, with a free open source edition to self-host.
Use cases
Startups on OpenTelemetry
Send traces and logs to SigNoz Cloud on the Teams plan
Outcome: Full-stack visibility from $49 a month
Platform teams
Self-host the Community edition inside their own cluster
Outcome: Observability with data kept in house
Growing engineering orgs
Add engineers and hosts without new seat licenses
Outcome: Costs tied only to data volume
Key features
- Logs, traces and metrics in one OpenTelemetry-native platform
- Logs and traces at $0.3 per GB ingested and metrics at $0.1 per million samples
- No user-based, host-based or custom metric pricing
- Self-hosted Community edition you install and manage yourself
- Cloud, BYOC and self-hosted Enterprise options with US, EU and India data centers
Pros
- Simple usage pricing without seat or host fees
- Open source Community edition for full control
- SOC2 Type II and HIPAA compliant cloud
Cons
- SSO and SAML are reserved for SigNoz Cloud, not the Community edition
- Self-hosting requires DevOps expertise
- Smaller integration catalog than Datadog or New Relic
Rank 8
Better Stack
Observability and incident management platform combining logs, traces, metrics, uptime monitoring, on-call and status pages.
betterstack.com8.2
out of 10
Best for: Small and mid-size teams that want telemetry, uptime checks and on-call in one affordable tool.
Better Stack combines telemetry with incident response, which is unusual on this list. One account covers logs, traces and metrics, error tracking, real user monitoring with session replay, uptime and transaction monitoring, on-call scheduling and status pages. An AI SRE agent in Slack can investigate incidents using that data. Teams query logs and traces with drag and drop, PromQL or SQL.
The free plan suits personal projects, with 10 monitors and heartbeats, one status page, 100,000 exceptions, 5,000 session replays, 3 GB of logs and traces kept for 3 days and 30 GB of metrics. Paid use combines responder licenses, from $29 per month billed annually or $34 monthly with unlimited phone and SMS alerts, with per-GB telemetry for logs, traces and metrics. Unlimited team members get telemetry access for free. It lacks the APM depth and integration breadth of Datadog, but small teams get monitoring and on-call without stitching tools together.
Standout feature
Telemetry, uptime monitoring, on-call and status pages share one account and one bill.
Use cases
Small SaaS teams
Run uptime checks, on-call and a public status page from one account
Outcome: Faster incident response without extra tools
Developers
Query application logs with SQL during a bug hunt
Outcome: Answers without learning a new query language
Lean SRE teams
Let the AI SRE agent gather logs and traces for an alert in Slack
Outcome: A first diagnosis before anyone opens a dashboard
Key features
- Logs and traces with PromQL, SQL and drag and drop querying
- Uptime, transaction and heartbeat monitoring with status pages
- On-call with unlimited phone call and SMS alerts per responder
- Error tracking, real user monitoring and session replay
- AI SRE agent in Slack that investigates incidents using your telemetry
Pros
- Free plan includes 10 monitors, a status page and 3 GB of logs
- Unlimited team members get free telemetry access
- Option to host data in your own bucket
Cons
- Free plan keeps logs and traces for only 3 days
- Less depth in APM and infrastructure than full-stack suites
- Costs combine responder licenses and several telemetry meters
Rank 9
Coralogix
Observability and security platform priced per GB, with telemetry stored in your own cloud bucket.
coralogix.com8.2
out of 10
Best for: Teams with high log volumes that want per-GB pricing and data kept in their own storage.
Coralogix prices observability by data, not by seat or host. Logs cost $0.42 per GB, traces $0.16 per GB and metrics $0.06 per GB, where 1 GB equals 750 active time series. Every account includes unlimited users, hosts and sources, 24/7 human support and enterprise features. Data lands in your own cloud bucket with infinite retention, so long retention is mostly a storage question, and Coralogix says it compresses logs and traces by a factor of 5 when archiving to S3.
The platform covers APM, logs, metrics, traces, real user monitoring, SIEM and AI observability, queried through DataPrime or a headless MCP interface for agents. Its Streama pipeline lets you route data by use case so lower-value logs cost less. The tradeoff is learning the unit system and keeping an eye on your own storage bill. There is no permanent free plan, but the 14-day trial includes every feature without a credit card.
Standout feature
Telemetry is stored in your own bucket with infinite retention and unlimited users.
Use cases
Platform teams
Keep years of logs in their own S3 bucket and query them remotely
Outcome: Long retention without premium storage fees
Security and ops teams
Run SIEM and observability on the same telemetry
Outcome: One pipeline instead of two
AI product teams
Monitor LLM apps and agents alongside service traces
Outcome: AI quality issues tied to system behavior
Key features
- Logs, metrics, traces, APM, RUM and SIEM in one platform
- Data stored in your own bucket with infinite retention
- DataPrime query language, remote query and a headless MCP interface
- OpenTelemetry and Streama pipeline for routing data by use case
- AI observability for LLM apps and agents
Pros
- Unlimited users, hosts and sources on every account
- 24/7 human support included
- Storing data in your own bucket keeps long retention affordable
Cons
- Unit-based billing takes time to learn
- S3 storage costs come on top of Coralogix charges
- No permanent free plan, only a 14-day trial
Rank 10
Splunk Observability Cloud
Observability suite with infrastructure monitoring, APM, real user monitoring and synthetics priced per host.
splunk.com8.1
out of 10
Best for: Enterprises already on Splunk that want observability tied to their logging and security data.
Splunk Observability Cloud packages metrics, traces and user monitoring into three host-based editions. Infrastructure starts at $15 per host per month billed annually and includes infrastructure monitoring, Log Observer Connect, Network Explorer and synthetic uptime monitoring. App & Infra, from $60 per host, adds APM with Always On Profiling and synthetic API checks, and End-to-End, from $75, adds real user monitoring and synthetic browser tests.
The strongest reason to choose it is an existing Splunk investment. Log Observer Connect is included on every edition, so teams can bring their Splunk log data into the same views as metrics and traces, and security and operations teams share data. Outside that context, it is harder to justify: APM starts at four times the entry price, real user monitoring only comes with the top edition, and every edition goes through a quote. For teams starting fresh, Datadog or Grafana Cloud usually offer a faster path.
Standout feature
Log Observer Connect puts existing Splunk logs next to metrics and traces.
Use cases
Enterprises on Splunk
Correlate traces with logs already stored in Splunk
Outcome: One investigation path for ops and security
SRE teams
Use Always On Profiling to find slow code paths in services
Outcome: Performance fixes based on production data
Digital teams
Track real user sessions and synthetic browser tests on End-to-End
Outcome: Front-end issues caught before customers report them
Key features
- Infrastructure monitoring, Log Observer Connect and Network Explorer on every edition
- Synthetic uptime monitoring included from the Infrastructure edition
- APM with Always On Profiling on App & Infra and End-to-End
- Real user monitoring and synthetic browser tests on End-to-End
- Host-based entity pricing with predictive AI operations
Pros
- Clear per-host editions with published starting prices
- Connects to existing Splunk logs through Log Observer Connect
- Profiling is included with APM
Cons
- APM requires the $60 App & Infra edition or higher
- Real user monitoring only comes with End-to-End
- Prices are billed annually and finalized through a quote
Frequently asked questions
+What is the best observability platform in 2026?
Datadog is our top pick for platform and SRE teams because infrastructure monitoring, APM, logs and on-call share one product with more than 1,000 integrations, from $15 per host per month billed annually. Grafana Cloud is the best alternative for teams on Prometheus or OpenTelemetry, with a free tier and Pro from $19 per month plus usage.
+What is the best free observability platform?
New Relic offers 100 GB of free data ingest a month with one full platform user, and Grafana Cloud's free tier includes every service with 10k metric series and 50 GB each of logs and traces. Honeycomb's free plan covers up to 20M events a month, and SigNoz's Community edition is free to self-host.
+Is Grafana Cloud cheaper than Datadog?
For most small and mid-size estates, yes. Grafana Cloud Pro starts at a $19 monthly platform fee plus usage, while Datadog charges from $15 per host per month for infrastructure and adds separate prices for APM and logs. The real comparison depends on host count, active series and log volume, so model both with your own numbers.
+What is the difference between monitoring and observability?
Monitoring tracks known signals, such as CPU or error rate, against thresholds. Observability adds the ability to ask new questions of metrics, logs and traces when something unexpected breaks, for example slicing traces by customer or build. Tools like Honeycomb focus on that exploratory side, while suites like Datadog cover both.
+Which observability platforms do not charge per user?
Dynatrace has no per-seat fees, Coralogix includes unlimited users and hosts, and SigNoz does not price by user or host. Better Stack gives unlimited team members free telemetry access and only charges for on-call responders.
About this list
Updated November 9, 2026 by the Mojolin research desk. Mojolin is self-funded
Questions or corrections: editorial@mojolin.com
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