OpenObserve
Logs, traces and metrics in one binary; your disk gets the invoice.
Technical Profile & Specs
verified 2026-08-14
- Cost
- $0 / forever (Open Source)
- License
- AGPL-3.0
- Hosting Model
- Local or hosted (your machine or their cloud)
- Platforms
- webself-hosteddocker to self-host
- Installation
- Hosted signup, or a single binary/Docker container; Helm plus external services for HA
- Operational Setup
- The easy single-node path still needs collectors and persistent storage; production HA adds Kubernetes, object storage, PostgreSQL, and NATS.
- Where Your Data Lives
- Telemetry is stored as Apache Parquet on local disk or object storage; single-node metadata defaults to SQLite, while HA uses PostgreSQL and NATS.
- The Catch / Trade-off
- It can ingest and search logs cheaply, but you must operate storage and collectors and give up Axiom's managed serverless scaling and polished event-query experience.
Replaces 5 paid apps
up to $40/mo ($480/yr) in subscriptions
OpenObserve FAQ
Common questions
Is OpenObserve free and open source?+
OpenObserve is an open-source tool licensed under AGPL-3.0 that runs on local or hosted. Logs, traces and metrics in one binary; your disk gets the invoice.
What paid software does OpenObserve replace?+
OpenObserve serves as a free replacement for 5 paid SaaS applications: Axiom, Datadog, Grafana Cloud, Honeycomb, New Relic, saving up to $40/month ($480/year) in subscription bills.
How do you install and set up OpenObserve?+
Installation: Hosted signup, or a single binary/Docker container; Helm plus external services for HA. Setup notes: The easy single-node path still needs collectors and persistent storage; production HA adds Kubernetes, object storage, PostgreSQL, and NATS.
What is the catch or trade-off with OpenObserve?+
It can ingest and search logs cheaply, but you must operate storage and collectors and give up Axiom's managed serverless scaling and polished event-query experience.