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Category · 54 tools · 55 comparisons

Monitoring and observability tools

Track system health, investigate issues, and coordinate responses across software operations.

Our ranked shortlist: the best monitoring and observability tools →

At a glance

Tools tracked
54
Entry plans
$0.04–$2,000/mo
Typical entry plan
$19/mo
Free plan
27 of 54
Cheapest paid
Instana, $0.04/mo
Best value score
Prometheus, 9/10

Every tool we cover

Price tracker →
ToolScoreFromTop listed planFree planTrialPages
incident.io7.8$15/mo$25/moYes—ReviewPricingAlternatives
Dash07.8Custom—No14 daysReviewPricing
Prometheus7.6Free*—Yes—ReviewPricingAlternatives
Zabbix7.6Free*—Yes—ReviewAlternatives
VictoriaMetrics7.6$200/mo*$200/moYes2 monthsReviewAlternatives
New Relic7.5$10/mo$349/moYes—ReviewPricingAlternatives
Site24x77.5$9/mo*$899/moNo—ReviewPricingAlternatives
OpenObserve7.5$0.50/mo$0.50/moYes14 daysReview
Checkmk7.4Free*—Yes—ReviewPricingAlternatives
Netdata7.4$7.50/mo*$7.50/moYes—ReviewPricingAlternatives
Graylog7.2$1,250/mo$1,500/moYes—ReviewPricingAlternatives
Observium7.2£20.83/mo*£125/moYes—ReviewAlternatives
Uptrends7.2$42/mo*$60/moNo30 daysReviewPricing
ThousandEyes7.1Custom*—No15 daysReviewAlternatives
Cribl7.1Free*—Yes—ReviewPricingAlternatives
Grafana7.0$19/mo$19/moYes—ReviewPricingAlternatives
FireHydrant7.0$25/mo$25/moYes14 daysReviewPricing
LogicMonitor7.0$19/mo$50/moNo14 daysReviewPricingAlternatives
Honeycomb7.0$150/mo$150/moYes—ReviewPricingAlternatives
Coralogix7.0Custom—No14 daysReviewPricingAlternatives
SolarWinds Observability7.0$8/mo$8/moNo30 daysReviewPricingAlternatives
Instana7.0$0.04/mo$32.10/moNo14 daysReviewPricingAlternatives
Better Stack7.0$25/mo*$1,470/moYes—ReviewPricingAlternatives
ScienceLogic Platform7.0$5/mo$20/moNo14 daysReview
Dynatrace6.8$7/mo$58/moNo15 daysReviewPricingAlternatives
UptimeRobot6.8€9/mo€65/moYes—ReviewPricingAlternatives
Lightrun6.8Free*—Yes—ReviewAlternatives
Statuspage6.8$29/mo$1,499/moYes—ReviewPricingAlternatives
Logit.io6.8$25/mo$160/moNo14 daysReview
Instatus6.8$15/mo*$225/moYes7 daysReviewAlternatives
Checkly6.8$24/mo*$64/moYes14 daysReviewPricingAlternatives
Datadog6.7$500/mo*$500/moNo—ReviewPricingAlternatives
Scout APM6.5$19/mo*$299/moYes14 daysReviewPricingAlternatives
Status.io6.5$75.05/mo$999/moNo—ReviewAlternatives
Papertrail6.5$5/mo$5/moNo—ReviewAlternatives
SigNoz6.5$49/mo$4,000/moYes—ReviewPricingAlternatives
SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer6.5$142/mo*$142/moNo14 daysReview
PingPlotter6.4$6.99/mo$90/moYes14 daysReviewAlternatives
PagerDuty6.3$21/mo$4,000/moYes—ReviewPricingAlternatives
Sumo Logic6.3Custom*—No30 daysReviewAlternatives
Chronosphere6.3Custom*—No—Review
Sysdig6.3Custom*—No—ReviewAlternatives
Nagios XI6.2Free*—Yes30 daysReviewPricingAlternatives
Catchpoint6.2$19/mo*$50/moNo14 daysReviewAlternatives
Splunk6.1$6/mo*$100/moYes—ReviewPricingAlternatives
Kentik6.0$2,000/mo$2,000/moYes30 daysReviewPricingAlternatives
BigPanda6.0Custom*—No—ReviewAlternatives
Uptime.com6.0$9/mo*$9/moNo—ReviewAlternatives
Pingdom6.0€14.33/mo€14.33/moNo—ReviewPricingAlternatives
Komodor6.0Custom*—NoYesReview
Pepperdata5.8Custom*—No5 daysReviewAlternatives
Flip AI5.8Custom*—No—ReviewAlternatives
AppDynamics5.8$0.06/mo*$95/moNoYesReviewPricingAlternatives
SQL Sentry5.0Custom*—No14 daysReviewPricing

* Lower confidence: the vendor's pricing page couldn't be read directly or didn't list every price, so the figure was compiled from other public sources and may be incomplete. Check the vendor's page before you buy.

Head-to-head

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Grafana vs Prometheus

Grafana 16 tiedPrometheus 1

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Dynatrace vs Splunk

Dynatrace 16 tiedSplunk 1

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Datadog vs Dynatrace

Datadog 14 tiedDynatrace 3

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Grafana vs Datadog

Grafana 35 tiedDatadog 0

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Splunk vs Datadog

Splunk 25 tiedDatadog 1

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Splunk vs Grafana

Splunk 07 tiedGrafana 1

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Datadog vs New Relic

Datadog 31 tiedNew Relic 4

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Nagios XI vs Zabbix

Nagios XI 14 tiedZabbix 3

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VictoriaMetrics vs Prometheus

VictoriaMetrics 24 tiedPrometheus 2

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Prometheus vs Zabbix

Prometheus 16 tiedZabbix 1

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Cribl vs Splunk

Cribl 24 tiedSplunk 2

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Datadog vs LogicMonitor

Datadog 05 tiedLogicMonitor 3

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Splunk vs New Relic

Splunk 14 tiedNew Relic 3

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Sumo Logic vs Datadog

Sumo Logic 26 tiedDatadog 0

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Grafana vs Dynatrace

Grafana 25 tiedDynatrace 1

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incident.io vs PagerDuty

incident.io 44 tiedPagerDuty 0

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Checkmk vs Zabbix

Checkmk 33 tiedZabbix 2

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Datadog vs Honeycomb

Datadog 06 tiedHoneycomb 2

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Prometheus vs Splunk

Prometheus 34 tiedSplunk 1

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SolarWinds Observability vs Zabbix

SolarWinds Observability 23 tiedZabbix 3

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Grafana vs New Relic

Grafana 06 tiedNew Relic 2

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Datadog vs AppDynamics

Datadog 26 tiedAppDynamics 0

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Dynatrace vs AppDynamics

Dynatrace 35 tiedAppDynamics 0

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Dynatrace vs New Relic

Dynatrace 15 tiedNew Relic 2

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Zabbix vs Datadog

Zabbix 34 tiedDatadog 1

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LogicMonitor vs New Relic

LogicMonitor 05 tiedNew Relic 3

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Prometheus vs Nagios XI

Prometheus 43 tiedNagios XI 1

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Datadog vs SolarWinds Observability

Datadog 07 tiedSolarWinds Observability 1

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Chronosphere vs Datadog

Chronosphere 17 tiedDatadog 0

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LogicMonitor vs Dynatrace

LogicMonitor 24 tiedDynatrace 2

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SolarWinds Observability vs Splunk

SolarWinds Observability 05 tiedSplunk 3

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Splunk vs Graylog

Splunk 05 tiedGraylog 3

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New Relic vs Honeycomb

New Relic 26 tiedHoneycomb 0

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Coralogix vs Datadog

Coralogix 17 tiedDatadog 0

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Netdata vs Grafana

Netdata 16 tiedGrafana 1

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AppDynamics vs Splunk

AppDynamics 02 tiedSplunk 6

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Grafana vs Zabbix

Grafana 23 tiedZabbix 3

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LogicMonitor vs Splunk

LogicMonitor 23 tiedSplunk 3

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SigNoz vs Datadog

SigNoz 33 tiedDatadog 2

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New Relic vs Prometheus

New Relic 15 tiedPrometheus 2

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Zabbix vs Splunk

Zabbix 43 tiedSplunk 1

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Nagios XI vs SolarWinds Observability

Nagios XI 33 tiedSolarWinds Observability 2

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SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer vs SQL Sentry

SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer 44 tiedSQL Sentry 0

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PagerDuty vs Statuspage

PagerDuty 06 tiedStatuspage 2

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Status.io vs Statuspage

Status.io 14 tiedStatuspage 3

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incident.io vs Statuspage

incident.io 26 tiedStatuspage 0

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Scout APM vs Site24x7

Scout APM 24 tiedSite24x7 2

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Datadog vs PagerDuty

Datadog 14 tiedPagerDuty 3

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FireHydrant vs incident.io

FireHydrant 14 tiedincident.io 3

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New Relic vs Statuspage

New Relic 26 tiedStatuspage 0

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Catchpoint vs LogicMonitor

Catchpoint 04 tiedLogicMonitor 4

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Datadog vs incident.io

Datadog 03 tiedincident.io 5

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Dash0 vs Datadog

Dash0 35 tiedDatadog 0

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BigPanda vs Grafana

BigPanda 03 tiedGrafana 5

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Netdata vs Prometheus

Netdata 16 tiedPrometheus 1

Highest scored

Monitoring and observability tools: quick answers

How much do monitoring and observability tools cost?

Paid plans for the 54 monitoring and observability tools we track start between $0.04 and $2,000 a month, and the typical entry plan is about $19 a month. 27 of them have a free plan. Dash0, ThousandEyes, Coralogix, Sumo Logic, Chronosphere, Sysdig, BigPanda, Komodor, Pepperdata, Flip AI and SQL Sentry don't publish a starting price. Prices are the vendors' own, checked Nov 7, 2026; most quote the per-month price when billed annually.

Which monitoring and observability tool is the cheapest?

Instana has the lowest paid entry plan at $0.04 a month, followed by AppDynamics at $0.06. If you can live with limits, incident.io, Prometheus, Zabbix and VictoriaMetrics have a free plan.

Which monitoring and observability tools have a free plan?

incident.io, Prometheus, Zabbix, VictoriaMetrics, New Relic, OpenObserve, Checkmk, Netdata, Graylog, Observium, Cribl, Grafana, FireHydrant, Honeycomb, Better Stack, UptimeRobot, Lightrun, Statuspage, Instatus, Checkly, Scout APM, SigNoz, PingPlotter, PagerDuty, Nagios XI, Splunk and Kentik have a free plan. Dash0, Uptrends, ThousandEyes, LogicMonitor and Coralogix offer a free trial instead. Free plans are usually capped on usage, seats or features; each review lists the limits.

Which monitoring and observability tool scores highest in our reviews?

incident.io scores highest at 7.8/10. Strong incident coordination and on-call; watch the per-user bill and the cost of AI investigation add-ons. On value for money alone, Prometheus rates best (9/10).