Log management tools compared: ingestion, retention and billing models
Log management compared across Datadog, Grafana Cloud, Elastic, New Relic, Better Stack, SigNoz and Dynatrace: OTel, hosting and log billing.
| Product | Logs | Distributed tracing | Metrics | Error tracking | OpenTelemetry | Runs as | Data regions | Free option | Pricing model | Compliance on vendor page |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DatadogDatadogsource · 8 Nov 2026 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Native OTLP ingest | SaaS | US, EU, UK, APACNine sites incl. EU1 (Germany), UK1, AP1 (Japan), AP2 (Australia) and two US government sites | Free tier | per host, per GB ingested, per event, per session, per test run | SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, HIPAA, FedRAMP, PCI DSS |
| Grafana LabsGrafana Cloudsource · 8 Nov 2026 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Not stated | Native OTLP ingest | SaaS | US, EU, UK, APAC, OTHERRegions on AWS, Google Cloud and Azure across US, EU, UK, APAC, Brazil, Canada and UAE | Free tier | per active metric series, per GB ingested, per user, per session, per host | SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, GDPR DPA |
| Grafana LabsGrafana, Loki, Tempo, Mimir (self-hosted open source)source · 8 Nov 2026 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Not stated | Native OTLP ingest | Self-hostedopen source (AGPL-3.0) | Where you host it | Free (self-hosted) | free (open source, you run it) | Not confirmed in sources checked |
| ElasticElastic Observabilitysource · 8 Nov 2026 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Not stated | Native OTLP ingest | SaaS, Self-hostedopen source (AGPL-3.0 / SSPL 1.0 / Elastic License 2.0 (source); releases under the Elastic License) | Not statedCloud regions not checked for this matrix | Trial | per GB ingested, per GB retained | SOC 2 (type not stated), ISO 27001, HIPAA, FedRAMP, PCI DSS |
| New RelicNew Relicsource · 8 Nov 2026 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Native OTLP ingest | SaaS | US, EU, APACUS (default), EU and Japan data-centre regions | Free tier | per GB ingested, per user, usage credits | Not confirmed in sources checked |
| Better StackBetter Stacksource · 8 Nov 2026 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Native OTLP ingest | SaaS | EU, US, APACEU by default; US and Singapore telemetry regions listed; custom residency for enterprise | Free tier | per GB ingested, per user, per event, per session | SOC 2 Type II, GDPR DPA |
| SigNozSigNoz Cloudsource · 8 Nov 2026 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Not stated | Native OTLP ingest | SaaS, BYOC, Self-hosted | US, EU, APACData centres in US, EU and India | Not stated | per GB ingested, per event | Not confirmed in sources checked |
| SigNozSigNoz Community Edition (self-hosted)source · 8 Nov 2026 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Not stated | Native OTLP ingest | Self-hostedopen source (MIT (Expat), except ee/ directories under a separate licence) | Where you host it | Free (self-hosted) | free (open source, you run it) | Not confirmed in sources checked |
| DynatraceDynatracesource · 9 Nov 2026 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Not stated | Native OTLP ingest | SaaS, Self-hosted | Not statedSaaS regions not listed on the pages checked | Trial | per host, per GB ingested, per GB retained, per session, usage credits | SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, HIPAA, FedRAMP |
yes · partial or add-on · no · – not stated in the sources we checked. Compliance lists only reports named on the vendor's own trust or security page; a blank does not mean the vendor lacks them. From each vendor's own documentation on the date shown; prices are not shown here, only how each product bills.
For logs, the deciding factor is usually how volume turns into cost, because log volume grows faster than anything else you send. The products below bill logs in noticeably different ways.
How each bills logs
| Product | Log billing dimensions (from the vendor’s pricing page) | Free way in |
|---|---|---|
| Datadog | Per GB ingested or scanned, plus per million log events indexed, plus Flex storage per million events stored | Free tier covers infrastructure only |
| Grafana Cloud | Per GB processed, written and retained | 50 GB of logs a month, 14-day retention |
| Elastic (Serverless) | Per GB ingested and per GB retained per month; Logs Essentials or Complete tier | “Try for free” (no trial length stated) |
| New Relic | Per GB ingested across all telemetry, plus user type | 100 GB a month of ingest |
| Better Stack | Per GB for logs and traces | 3 GB of logs, 3-day retention |
| SigNoz Cloud | Per GB ingested | Not stated (a “get started free” option) |
| Dynatrace | Per GiB ingested, per GiB-day retained, per GiB scanned (or retention with bundled queries) | 15-day trial |
| Self-hosted Loki (Grafana) / SigNoz CE | No licence fee; you pay for storage and operations | Free to run |
Pick by situation
- Logs are your main signal and volume is high. Look closely at models that separate ingest from indexing or querying (Datadog, Dynatrace) and decide what really needs to be searchable. Per-GB ingest-and-retain models (Grafana Cloud, Elastic Serverless) are simpler to forecast.
- You want logs next to traces in one tool. All of these accept OTLP, according to the OpenTelemetry vendor registry. Better Stack, SigNoz and Grafana Cloud sell logs and traces together.
- You must keep logs on your own infrastructure. Grafana Loki (AGPL-3.0), SigNoz Community Edition and self-managed Elastic run on your hardware. There is no licence bill, but storage, retention and upgrades become your team’s job.
- EU data residency. Better Stack stores data in the EU by default. Datadog, Grafana Cloud, New Relic and SigNoz Cloud document EU regions too.
The full matrix is in observability platforms compared. If you also need APM, see the best APM tools.
Vendor facts
Datadog
Full-stack SaaS observability: separately billed products for infrastructure, APM, logs, RUM, session replay, error tracking, synthetics and profiling.
- OpenTelemetry
- Native OTLP ingest: OTLP via the Datadog Agent (with embedded DDOT Collector), via your own OTel Collector, or direct agentless OTLP ingestion
- Runs as
- saas
- Free option
- Free tier: Free tier for infrastructure: up to 5 hosts with 1-day metric retention
- Bills
- per host, per GB ingested, per event, per session, per test run (Infrastructure, APM and profiler per host; logs per GB ingested plus per million indexed events; replay per 1,000 sessions; errors by volume)
- Compliance
- SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, HIPAA, FedRAMP, PCI DSS
Verified 8 Nov 2026 · Datadog pricing, Datadog docs: OpenTelemetry, Datadog docs: sites, Datadog Trust Center, OpenTelemetry vendor registry (frozen list)
Grafana Cloud
Managed LGTM stack (metrics, logs, traces, profiles) with Application Observability (APM), Frontend Observability (RUM), Kubernetes monitoring and synthetics.
- OpenTelemetry
- Native OTLP ingest: Listed with native OTLP support in the OpenTelemetry vendor registry
- Runs as
- saas
- Free option
- Free tier: "Always free": 10k active series, 50 GB each of logs, traces and profiles per month, 14-day retention, 3 active users
- Bills
- per active metric series, per GB ingested, per user, per session, per host (Usage-based above the free tier; APM and Kubernetes per host-hour)
- Compliance
- SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, GDPR DPA
Verified 8 Nov 2026 · Grafana Cloud pricing, Grafana Cloud docs: regional availability, Grafana Labs security, OpenTelemetry vendor registry (frozen list)
Elastic Observability
Observability on Elasticsearch: available as Elastic Cloud Serverless (priced by GB ingested and retained) or self-managed; Logs Essentials or Complete tiers.
- OpenTelemetry
- Native OTLP ingest: Listed with native OTLP support in the OpenTelemetry vendor registry
- Runs as
- saas, self-hosted (open source, AGPL-3.0 / SSPL 1.0 / Elastic License 2.0 (source); releases under the Elastic License)
- Free option
- Trial: "Try for free"; no trial length stated
- Bills
- per GB ingested, per GB retained (Serverless: per GB ingested and per GB retained per month; self-managed licensing differs)
- Compliance
- SOC 2 (type not stated), ISO 27001, HIPAA, FedRAMP, PCI DSS
Verified 8 Nov 2026 · Elastic Serverless Observability pricing, Elastic licensing FAQ, Elastic Trust Center, OpenTelemetry vendor registry (frozen list)
Better Stack
Uptime monitoring, incident management and status pages combined with logs, traces, metrics, error tracking and session replay.
- OpenTelemetry
- Native OTLP ingest: Listed with native OTLP support in the OpenTelemetry vendor registry
- Runs as
- saas
- Free option
- Free tier: Free for personal projects: 10 monitors, 3 GB logs and traces (3-day retention), 100k exceptions, 5k replays
- Bills
- per GB ingested, per user, per event, per session (Telemetry per GB; responders per licence; exceptions and replays above included volumes)
- Compliance
- SOC 2 Type II, GDPR DPA
Verified 8 Nov 2026 · Better Stack pricing, Better Stack security, OpenTelemetry vendor registry (frozen list)
Sources
- Datadog pricing (Log Management), checked 8 Nov 2026
- Grafana Cloud pricing, checked 8 Nov 2026
- Elastic Serverless Observability pricing, checked 8 Nov 2026
- New Relic pricing, checked 8 Nov 2026
- Better Stack pricing, checked 8 Nov 2026
- SigNoz pricing, checked 8 Nov 2026
- Dynatrace pricing, checked 8 Nov 2026
- OpenTelemetry vendor registry, checked 8 Nov 2026
Matrix rows carry their own source and verification date. This page is revisited when: a vendor changes how logs are billed (ingest, indexing, retention, scanning), its free log allowance, OpenTelemetry log ingestion, regions or self-hosting options