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Open-source logs, metrics, traces and RUM platform · by OpenObserve Inc.

OpenObserve

Rust-based, AGPL-licensed observability platform for logs, metrics, traces, RUM and errors, storing data as Parquet on object storage, self-hostable or in the cloud per GB ingested.

Visit openobserve.ai ↗ Alternatives Open source Open source Self-hostable EU region
OpenObserve homepage
§1

Overview

OpenObserve (often called O2) is an open-source observability platform written in Rust. Instead of Elasticsearch-style indexes, it writes logs, traces and metrics as compressed Parquet files to S3-compatible object storage, which it says cuts storage cost sharply for large log volumes. It runs as a single binary for small setups or as a cluster for scale.

It covers logs with full-text and SQL search, metrics with SQL or PromQL, OpenTelemetry traces, real user monitoring with session replay, error tracking, dashboards, alerts, pipelines and LLM observability, so it can replace an ELK or Loki stack plus a tracing backend.

The open-source edition is free, and even the Self-Hosted Enterprise edition with SSO and RBAC is free below 50 GB a day. OpenObserve Cloud charges $0.50 per GB ingested on an annual commitment plus $0.01 per GB queried, with no per-seat fees.

§2

Pricing and plans

Free tier · no card

Open Source edition is free forever to self-host; the Self-Hosted Enterprise edition is free up to 50 GB ingested per day. The cloud has a 14-day trial only.

At the limit Not stated The vendor does not say what happens at the limit, or we have not found it yet.

Plan Price What you get
Open Source $0 AGPL-3.0, self-hosted, single binary or HA cluster
Self-Hosted Enterprise $0 up to 50 GB/day SSO, RBAC, federated search, audit trail, redaction; above 50 GB/day contact sales
Cloud Professional $0.50/GB ingested + $0.01/GB queried Logs, metrics, traces, RUM, replay, errors; metrics kept 15 months, other data 30 days
Enterprise Custom Bring your own bucket, volume discounts, SLAs, BYOC

The $0.50/GB cloud ingest price includes a 30% discount for an annual commitment; the month-to-month rate was not shown. Extra retention for non-metric data costs $0.02 per GB per additional 30 days. AI features are free during preview with 20 credits. Unlimited users, dashboards and alerts. euRegion is true on the basis of self-hosting; the cloud's data regions were not stated on the pages read.

Source: openobserve.ai/pricing/ · prices as published, excluding tax.

§3

What it does

Parquet on object storage
Columnar storage on S3, GCS or Azure Blob keeps long retention cheap.
SQL and PromQL
Query logs and traces with SQL and metrics with SQL or PromQL.
OpenTelemetry native
Accepts OTLP logs, metrics and traces, plus Fluent Bit, Vector and syslog.
RUM and session replay
Core Web Vitals, frontend errors and session replay.
Alerts and incidents
Scheduled, real-time and anomaly alerts grouped into incidents.
Single binary
Starts in minutes as one binary; scales to an HA cluster.
§4

Strengths and limitations

Strengths

  • Free self-hosted editions, including enterprise features below 50 GB a day.
  • Low storage cost for large log volumes using object storage.
  • No per-seat or per-host fees on the cloud.
  • Covers logs, metrics, traces and frontend monitoring in one tool.

Limitations

  • Cloud has only a 14-day trial, no permanent free tier.
  • The advertised cloud ingest price assumes an annual commitment.
  • AGPL licence may need review for companies that modify and offer it as a service.
  • No uptime checks or status pages.
§5

Who it suits

Good for

  • Teams with large log volumes replacing Elasticsearch or Splunk
  • Self-hosters wanting one backend for logs, metrics and traces
  • Security and platform teams keeping long retention

Look elsewhere if

  • Developers wanting simple hosted error tracking with a free tier
  • Uptime monitoring
§6

Alternatives to OpenObserve

Tool From Free option Stages
SigNoz Open-source OpenTelemetry APM, logs and metrics
$49/mo Free tier
Checkly Synthetic and uptime monitoring as code
$24/mo Free tier
Rollbar Error tracking and session replay
$15.83/mo Free tier
Grafana Cloud Hosted metrics, logs, traces and dashboards
$19/mo Free tier
Sentry Error tracking and application monitoring
$26/mo Free tier
Amazon CloudWatch AWS-native metrics, logs, alarms and tracing
Usage-based Free tier

All monitoring, uptime and error tracking →

§7

Questions

Is OpenObserve free?

The open-source edition is free to self-host, and the Self-Hosted Enterprise edition is free up to 50 GB of ingestion a day.

How much does OpenObserve Cloud cost?

$0.50 per GB ingested with an annual commitment plus $0.01 per GB queried, with 30 days of log retention and 15 months of metrics included.

Can OpenObserve replace Elasticsearch for logs?

It is designed to, storing logs as Parquet on object storage and querying them with SQL.

Does OpenObserve support OpenTelemetry?

Yes, it ingests OTLP logs, metrics and traces natively.

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