Observability tools with a free tier
9 of the 16 observability vendors we track have a genuine permanent free tier or allowance. The most generous are New Relic (100 GB ingest/month + 1 full user, free forever), Grafana Cloud (10K active series, 50 GB logs/traces/profiles, 3 users) and Honeycomb (20M events/month, unlimited users). For error tracking, Sentry's free Developer tier (5,000 errors) is the default starting point. Trial-only vendors (Datadog, Dynatrace, Coralogix) are listed separately below. Pricing snapshot: June 2026 - verify current pricing on the vendor's site before relying on these figures.
Source: Vendor pricing pages. Data as of June 2026.
Vendors with a permanent free tier
| Vendor | Free tier |
|---|---|
| Better Stack | Free: 10 monitors, 1 status page, 3 GB logs, 30 GB metrics, 100K exceptions, 5K session replays. |
| Datadog | Free plan: Infrastructure for up to 5 hosts with 1-day metric retention; 14-day free trial of the full platform. |
| Grafana Cloud | Free forever: 10K active metric series, 50 GB logs, 50 GB traces, 50 GB profiles, 3 users, 14-day retention. |
| Honeycomb | Free: 20 million events/month, 1 environment, 60-day retention, unlimited users. |
| Last9 | Free trial / limited free usage; primary commercial plan is the usage-based Pro tier. |
| Logz.io | Free trial; community plan with limited daily volume. No large permanent free tier. |
| New Relic | Free forever: 100 GB ingest/month + 1 Full Platform user + unlimited basic users. |
| Site24x7 | Free forever plan: up to 5 monitors with basic website/uptime monitoring; 30-day trial of paid plans. |
| Sumo Logic | Free plan: $0/month, limited daily ingest, no credit card required. |
Source: Vendor pricing pages. Data as of June 2026.
Free: 10 monitors, 1 status page, 3 GB logs, 30 GB metrics, 100K exceptions, 5K session replays.
DatadogFree plan: Infrastructure for up to 5 hosts with 1-day metric retention; 14-day free trial of the full platform.
Grafana CloudFree forever: 10K active metric series, 50 GB logs, 50 GB traces, 50 GB profiles, 3 users, 14-day retention.
HoneycombFree: 20 million events/month, 1 environment, 60-day retention, unlimited users.
Last9Free trial / limited free usage; primary commercial plan is the usage-based Pro tier.
Logz.ioFree trial; community plan with limited daily volume. No large permanent free tier.
New RelicFree forever: 100 GB ingest/month + 1 Full Platform user + unlimited basic users.
Site24x7Free forever plan: up to 5 monitors with basic website/uptime monitoring; 30-day trial of paid plans.
Sumo LogicFree plan: $0/month, limited daily ingest, no credit card required.
Trial only (no permanent free tier)
These vendors offer a time-limited trial or custom plan, not a permanent free tier:
- Chronosphere - No public free tier; sales-led trials only.
- Coralogix - 14-day free trial (8 units, full features); no permanent free tier.
- Dynatrace - 15-day free trial of the full platform; no permanent free tier.
- Elastic Observability - 14-day free trial of Elastic Cloud; free, self-managed open-source Elastic Stack (run-it-yourself).
- Sentry - Developer (free): 5,000 errors + 10,000 spans/performance units + 50 replays per month, 1 user, 30-day retention.
- Splunk AppDynamics - 15-day free trial; no permanent free tier.
- Splunk Observability Cloud - 14-day free trial of Splunk Observability Cloud; no permanent free tier.
Frequently asked questions
Which observability tools have a free tier in 2026?
Vendors with a genuine permanent free tier include Better Stack, Datadog, Grafana Cloud, Honeycomb, Last9, Logz.io, New Relic, Site24x7, Sumo Logic. The most generous are New Relic (100 GB ingest/month + 1 full user, free forever), Grafana Cloud (10K active series, 50 GB logs/traces/profiles, 3 users) and Honeycomb (20M events/month, unlimited users). Sentry's Developer tier (5,000 errors) is the standard free entry for error tracking.
What is the difference between a free tier and a free trial?
A free tier is always free within limits (New Relic 100 GB/month, Grafana 50 GB logs, Honeycomb 20M events). A free trial is time-limited (Datadog 14-day, Dynatrace 15-day, Coralogix 14-day) and converts to paid. This page lists vendors with a genuine permanent free tier; trial-only vendors are listed separately.
Is a free observability tier enough for production?
For a small service, sometimes. New Relic's 100 GB and Grafana's 50 GB logs cover modest production telemetry, and Honeycomb's 20M events suit a low-traffic app. But free tiers cap retention, users or volume, so once you scale hosts, log volume or team size you will move to paid. Model your real usage in the calculator before committing.
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Last updated: 2026-06-21