SigNoz Pricing in 2026: Plans, Cost, and Alternatives

Most observability tools make it hard to see what you are actually paying for. SigNoz keeps the pricing simple: you pay based on the data you send.

There are no per-host or per-user charges, and custom metrics do not come with a separate fee. Whether you run ten servers or a thousand, the pricing model stays the same.

That simplicity makes SigNoz easy to understand, but your monthly bill can still be difficult to predict. The price per gigabyte is clear. The tricky part is knowing how much data your logs, traces, and metrics will generate next month.

In this guide, we break down all three SigNoz plans, explain the usage rates behind them, look at what teams can expect to spend, and show where costs can start to add up. We will also look at where a platform like Motadata may make more sense when usage-based pricing becomes difficult to manage.

SigNoz is open source at its core, so you can self-host it without paying for the software. Its cloud plans add managed hosting and support, with pricing based on the amount of data you ingest.

So, how does SigNoz pricing work in 2026? Let's break it down plan by plan.

SigNoz Pricing at a Glance

Short on time? Here is the structure before the detail.

One thing matters most. SigNoz charges you for the amount of data you send, not for the number of machines you have. So your cost goes up with data, not with the size of your setup.

Two things this table does not show. The first is that metrics cost more the longer you keep them. So a longer retention period means a higher price per million samples.

The second is that the free Community Edition is powerful, but you have to host it yourself. So the cost is not a bill. It is the time and servers your team spends to run it.

If a pay-per-data bill is hard to plan, or self-hosting is more work than you want, Motadata is worth a look. It gives you one fixed price for your setup, so the number stays steady. You can book a Motadata demo and try it on your own data first.

What is SigNoz?

SigNoz is an open-source observability platform. It brings APM, distributed traces, logs, metrics, exceptions, and alerts into one tool.

It suits developers, DevOps, and SRE teams who want one place to watch application and infrastructure health. It is often chosen as an open alternative to Datadog or New Relic.

SigNoz runs natively on OpenTelemetry, the open standard for sending telemetry data. That means you instrument your apps once and are not locked into one vendor's agent.

Behind the scenes, it uses ClickHouse, a fast database, to store and search large amounts of data quickly. This is a big reason it can charge so little.

Its main strength is low-cost monitoring in one place. Logs, metrics, and traces all sit in one screen, linked together, at a price well below the big SaaS tools.

One note on how it works. The core software is free and open source, so you do not pay for a license. You pay either the cloud bill or the effort of running the self-hosted version well.

How SigNoz Pricing Works

SigNoz pricing has three parts, and the one you pick changes how you pay.

The first is the Community Edition. It is free and open source, and you host it yourself. There are no data caps and no license fee, but you run the servers, the database, and the upgrades.

The second is Teams Cloud. SigNoz hosts it for you, and you pay a base fee plus usage. This removes the upkeep and adds a monthly bill based on the data you send.

The third is Enterprise. It has custom pricing for larger companies that need data control, compliance, and their own support. It starts well above the Teams plan.

What You Pay For in the Cloud

The cloud plans charge you for three types of data, so it helps to know them once.

Logs and traces are measured in gigabytes you send. Metrics are measured in samples, counted per million. If you want a primer on the difference, our guide to logs vs metrics breaks it down. There is no charge per host, per user, or for custom metrics.

The Teams plan comes with a starting credit, so the first bit of usage is covered by the monthly fee. After that, you pay the set rate for whatever you send.

SigNoz Pricing by Plan

This is the core of SigNoz pricing. There are three plans, each for a different kind of team, so here they are one at a time.

Note: the Community Edition has no license fee, but you carry the hosting and upkeep. The Teams price includes usage worth $49 before metered billing starts.

SigNoz Community Edition Pricing

The Community Edition is free and open source. You download it, host it on your own infrastructure, and use it with no data caps and no license fee.

What you get is the full observability platform: APM, logs, traces, metrics, and alerts. Support comes from the community Slack, not from SigNoz directly.

The cost here is not money, it is effort. You run the servers, manage the ClickHouse database, handle growth, and own every upgrade and backup. For a team with the skill and time, that trade can be worth it.

SigNoz Teams (Cloud) Pricing

Teams is the managed cloud plan. SigNoz hosts and scales it for you, and you pay a $49 monthly base fee that includes $49 worth of usage.

Past that credit, you pay for what you send. The table below shows the metered rates.

Note: the $49 starting credit covers about 163 GB of logs or traces, or about 490 million metric samples, before you start paying extra. The exact amount depends on your mix of data.

The plan comes with all features, unlimited users, and a 30-day free trial. There are no per-host fees, which is the main reason teams switch to it from per-host tools.

SigNoz Metrics Retention Pricing

Metrics work a little differently. The longer you keep your data, the more you pay per million samples. So retention is something you need to keep an eye on when managing costs.

Note: a shorter retention period keeps metric costs down. If you do not need a full year of history, a shorter window lowers the bill directly.

SigNoz Enterprise Pricing

Enterprise is for larger organizations that need more than the Teams plan offers. It starts at $4,000 per month and is custom-priced.

It comes in three forms. You can take a dedicated setup on SigNoz Cloud, bring your own cloud and let SigNoz manage it, or self-host with a paid support contract.

The extras are what make the higher price worth it. Enterprise adds data control, HIPAA and SOC 2 support, hands-on onboarding, guided setup, and a named support contact. A dedicated cloud setup includes monthly data usage up to the $4,000 base.

SigNoz Startup Program

There is one more option for early-stage companies. The Startup Program gives 50 percent off the Teams plan, bringing it to $19 per month instead of $49.

It is not open to everyone. You have to meet the rules, which are aimed at young companies at an early funding stage, so check the terms before you count on it.

What SigNoz Costs in Practice

The plans are simple, but a live setup is where the true number shows up. The tables below give rough monthly usage. Treat them as rough guides, not quotes, since your bill depends on the data you send.

The small-team number. A small team can often stay within the $49 starting credit, so the base fee is the whole bill. This is where SigNoz does well against per-host tools.

The growing-team number. Once you pass the credit, the per-GB rate kicks in. More services and more logging raise the total, though it still sits far below the big SaaS tools at the same volume.

The mid-market number. At terabytes of data, the bill grows with the amount you send. It stays cheaper than most rivals per gigabyte, but the total now depends on how much you send and how long you keep it.

What Increases Your SigNoz Costs

Four things lift a SigNoz bill above the base fee.

1. Data volume: Logs and traces bill per gigabyte, so every new service, debug log, or traffic spike adds to the total. This is the single biggest driver.

2. Metric retention: The rate per million samples goes up the longer you keep the data, so keeping metrics for a year costs more per sample than keeping them for a month.

3. Self-hosting effort: The Community Edition is free to use, but you pay in servers and staff time to run ClickHouse, grow it, and keep it healthy.

4. The jump to Enterprise: Data control, compliance, and dedicated support only come with the Enterprise plan, which starts at $4,000 per month, a big step up from Teams.

The point is simple. SigNoz cost depends on how much data you send and how long you keep it. So it works best for teams that watch their data and think twice about long retention.

SigNoz User Reviews: What Teams Actually Say

This section is based on our analysis of SigNoz reviews across G2, Reddit, and similar platforms. SigNoz reviews well on price and openness, and less well on the effort of self-hosting.

The praise is steady. Low cost leads the comments, with reviewers calling the per-GB model far cheaper than per-host tools like Datadog.

The single view is a second theme. Reviewers like having logs, metrics, and traces in one place, linked together, instead of spread across separate tools.

The open, OpenTelemetry base is a third. Teams like that they are not tied to one vendor's agent and can self-host if they want.

The main complaint is about running it yourself. Reviewers say the self-hosted edition takes solid skill to set up, grow, and maintain, especially the ClickHouse database.

Growth and support are the other themes. Some reviewers find that advanced features and dedicated support sit behind the Enterprise plan, and that self-hosting at large scale needs careful setup.

These are common review patterns, not hard facts, so your own results will depend on your data volume and whether you self-host.

Top SigNoz Alternatives to Consider

SigNoz does one job well: open-source, pay-per-data monitoring for teams happy to send data by the gigabyte or run the platform themselves. But that setup leaves gaps for some teams, so it helps to see how the main alternatives compare.

Our pick is Motadata. Where SigNoz asks you to guess your usage or host it yourself, Motadata gives you one fixed price for your setup and covers network and infrastructure monitoring alongside logs, metrics, and traces, with AI included.

The table below lays out five alternatives side by side, so you can match one to your need. For a deeper look, see our full roundup of SigNoz alternatives.

Why Motadata Leads the List

SigNoz is a strong app observability tool, but it leaves two gaps for many teams: the bill is hard to predict, and someone still has to run it. Motadata closes both.

On cost, Motadata works the other way. Instead of charging for every gigabyte, it gives you one fixed price for your setup, so the number you agree to stays the same as your data grows. There is no meter to watch.

On coverage, Motadata reaches wider. SigNoz focuses on app data, while Motadata also covers network monitoring, infrastructure, flows, and device health, so you do not need a second tool for the network side.

On effort, Motadata takes the work off your plate. There is no ClickHouse to tune and no self-hosted setup to grow, since it runs on SaaS or on your own servers with the running handled for you.

On smarts, its AI comes included. The AI spots unusual patterns and links related alerts with no training needed, instead of being an early-stage add-on. For a fuller view of the field, our roundup of observability tools is a good place to start.

Looking for observability without the usage meter? Motadata is quoted to your environment and covers logs, metrics, traces, and the network layer in one platform. Book a Motadata Demo

Is SigNoz the Right Choice?

SigNoz is a strong fit for teams that want open-source, low-cost observability and are comfortable with usage-based billing or self-hosting.

SigNoz Works Best For

SigNoz is a strong fit for:

1. Developer and DevOps teams that want APM, logs, traces, and metrics in one tool

2. Teams already using OpenTelemetry that want a native home for their data

3. Cost-sensitive teams moving away from per-host pricing

4. Teams with the skill to self-host and run ClickHouse

5. Startups that qualify for the 50 percent discount

6. Organizations that want an open alternative to Datadog or New Relic

7. Teams whose main need is application observability, not network monitoring

These use cases line up with what SigNoz does best. Its per-GB model and OpenTelemetry base reward teams that value openness and low cost, and that can either predict their usage or run the platform themselves.

SigNoz May Not Be the Right Fit For

SigNoz's limits are mostly about predictability and scope, not capability. It is a usage-priced app observability tool, so a hard-to-forecast bill and a narrow focus can be issues for some teams.

SigNoz may not be enough for:

1. Teams that want a fixed, predictable price they can budget in advance

2. Teams without the skill or time to self-host and tune ClickHouse

3. Organizations that need network and infrastructure monitoring in the same tool

4. Teams that want mature, included AI rather than an early-stage layer

5. Teams that need compliance and dedicated support without the Enterprise jump

6. Organizations wary of cost spikes from high ingest or long retention

7. Teams that want one platform across app, network, and infrastructure signals

That is the choice. If open, low-cost app observability is the goal and you can handle usage billing or self-hosting, SigNoz is a strong option. If you want a fixed quote, wider coverage, and AI included, a platform like Motadata is worth a look.

Conclusion

The main point on SigNoz pricing is that each rate is clear, and the core is open source.

The rates are public, the model is simple, and the Community Edition is truly free. For a team that wants openness and low cost, that is a rare and welcome mix.

But the same model leaves the planning to you. Your bill grows with the data you send and how long you keep it, and the free edition swaps a license fee for genuine running effort.

That is not a reason to skip it. For the right team, SigNoz brings all your monitoring into one place at a price the big vendors find hard to match.

It is a reason to work out your data and retention before you commit, and to weigh the cost of self-hosting honestly, since the per-GB rate alone will not tell you the full total.

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