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Best observability platforms in 2026

Full-stack platforms that take metrics, logs and traces in one place, usually with dashboards, alerting and APM on top. This list has the top 11 of 22 observability platforms, ranked by a published score. Of these, 3 are open source, 10 have a free plan and 5 can be self-hosted. Checked by hand on 30 September 2026.

How this list is ranked

Each active tool gets a score out of 100. Archived, end-of-sale and maintenance-only tools are left out.

  • Capabilities: up to 75 points for the share of the category checklist that the tool's own documentation confirms. A tool meeting 8 of 10 items gets 60.
  • Free to start: 15 points for a free plan or a free edition.
  • Open or self-hostable: 10 points if it is open source or can be self-hosted.

Each category has a fixed checklist of capabilities (shown in the table below and on every tool page). An item counts only when the tool's own documentation confirms it; anything we could not confirm counts as not met. How long a tool has existed is deliberately not scored, so a new tool is not ranked below an older one for being new. Tools with the same score share a rank (shown as =), are listed A to Z within it, and the list never cuts between them. Nobody pays for a position.

  1. 1

    Elastic Observability

    Logs, metrics, APM traces and synthetics built on Elasticsearch and Kibana, run yourself or on Elastic Cloud.

    Free plan Open source (AGPL-3.0-only OR SSPL-1.0 OR Elastic-2.0) Self-hosted LogsMetricsAPMTraces
    100 10 of 10 capabilities (75), free 15, open 10
  2. =2

    groundcover

    Kubernetes observability that uses an eBPF sensor and runs in your own cloud account, covering logs, traces, metrics and APM without code changes.

    Free plan Self-hosted KubernetesAPMLogsTraces
    93 9 of 10 capabilities (68), free 15, open 10
  3. =2

    OpenObserve

    Single-binary store for logs, metrics and traces on object storage, with SQL search, dashboards and alerts. Self-host the open source build or use the pay-as-you-go cloud.

    Free plan Open source (AGPL-3.0-only) Self-hosted LogsMetricsTracesOpenTelemetry
    93 9 of 10 capabilities (68), free 15, open 10
  4. =4

    Datadog

    SaaS monitoring platform covering infrastructure, APM, logs, RUM, synthetics, security and incident management, collected mostly through one agent.

    Free plan Free: 5 hosts, 1-day metric retention MetricsAPMLogsInfrastructure
    90 10 of 10 capabilities (75), free 15, open 0
  5. =4

    Grafana Cloud

    Grafana Labs' hosted stack: Grafana with managed Prometheus-compatible metrics, Loki logs, Tempo traces, profiles, synthetic checks and IRM.

    Free plan Free: 10k metric series, 50 GB logs, 14-day retention MetricsLogsTracesDashboards
    90 10 of 10 capabilities (75), free 15, open 0
  6. =4

    Last9

    Telemetry data platform for high-cardinality metrics, logs and traces, compatible with Prometheus and OpenTelemetry.

    Free plan MetricsLogsTracesOpenTelemetry
    90 10 of 10 capabilities (75), free 15, open 0
  7. =4

    New Relic

    SaaS observability platform for APM, infrastructure, logs, browser and mobile monitoring and errors, priced by data ingest and user type.

    Free plan Free: 100 GB ingest/mo, 1 full platform user APMInfrastructureLogsReal user monitoring
    90 10 of 10 capabilities (75), free 15, open 0
  8. =8

    Coroot

    Open source observability that uses eBPF to build service maps and collect metrics, logs, traces and profiles without code changes, with root-cause hints.

    Free plan Open source (Apache-2.0) Self-hosted APMMetricsTracesKubernetes
    85 8 of 10 capabilities (60), free 15, open 10
  9. =8

    Dynatrace

    Enterprise observability platform that instruments hosts and apps automatically through its OneAgent, maps dependencies and points to likely root causes; also offered as self-managed Dynatrace Managed.

    Paid Self-hosted APMInfrastructureLogsReal user monitoring
    85 10 of 10 capabilities (75), free 0, open 10
  10. =10

    Middleware

    Full-stack observability SaaS covering infrastructure, APM, logs, RUM and synthetic checks, priced by data volume.

    Free plan Free: 100 GB data, 14-day retention APMLogsInfrastructureReal user monitoring
    83 9 of 10 capabilities (68), free 15, open 0
  11. =10

    Sematext

    Hosted infrastructure monitoring, log management, synthetic checks and real user monitoring, with a plan chosen per app.

    Free plan LogsInfrastructureSynthetic checksReal user monitoring
    83 9 of 10 capabilities (68), free 15, open 0

Side by side

Tool Pricing Free plan Open source Self-hosted OpenTelemetry (OTLP) ingestMetricsLogsDistributed tracesAPMReal user monitoringSynthetic checksContinuous profilingBuilt-in alertingSLO tracking
Elastic Observability Free plan Yes Yes Yes YesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYes
groundcover Free plan Yes No Yes YesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYes-
OpenObserve Free plan Yes Yes Yes YesYesYesYesYesYesYes-YesYes
Datadog Free plan 5 hosts, 1-day metric retention No No YesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYes
Grafana Cloud Free plan 10k metric series, 50 GB logs, 14-day retention No No YesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYes
Last9 Free plan Yes No No YesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYes
New Relic Free plan 100 GB ingest/mo, 1 full platform user No No YesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYes
Coroot Free plan Yes Yes Yes YesYesYesYesYes--YesYesYes
Dynatrace Paid No No Yes YesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYes
Middleware Free plan 100 GB data, 14-day retention No No YesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYes-
Sematext Free plan Yes No No YesYesYesYesYesYesYes-YesYes

Yes: confirmed in the tool's documentation. No: documented as not offered. -: not confirmed. Plans and prices change; check each tool's own site before you decide.

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