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Axiom vs Better Stack

SEPT 2026 audit

A comparison of Axiom and Better Stack built from values read directly from each provider's own documentation, with the source recorded against every figure.

Reviewed by Palash BagchiUpdated 27 criteria comparedSources last checked

The short answer

Choose Axiom if…

Small projects that want a real telemetry platform for nothing — 500 GB a month loaded with 30-day retention, permanently, is the most generous free allowance in this category.

Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved

Choose Better Stack if…

Teams who would otherwise buy uptime monitoring, log management and error tracking separately, and would rather have one bill and one dashboard.

Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved

Consider something else if…

  • Axiom: Query compute is billed as its own meter in GB-hours, so an expensive dashboard costs money even when ingest is inside the allowance.
  • Better Stack: Web event retention is 3 days on the free plan, which is short enough to miss a Monday-morning investigation of a Friday-night incident.

Neither quite fits? Every other option, ranked by iScore: Axiom alternatives · Better Stack alternatives

19 sourced criteria separate them — see where, with sources, below.

Visit Axiom documentationVisit Better Stack documentation

No affiliate links, sponsored placements or paid rankings appear on this site. Ordering follows the sourced data and the stated criteria.

01.

At a glance.

CriterionAxiomBetter Stack
Pricing
Free tierYesYes
Kind of free offerAlways freeFree tier
What the free plan includes
500 GB of data loading a month, 10 GB-hours of query compute, 25 GB of storage and 30-day retention, with no credit card.
3 GB of logs a month retained 3 days, 100,000 exceptions, and uptime monitoring with on-call and status pages at $0 per member.
Entry paid plan
$25/month platform fee for Cloud, plus usage, with no minimum commitment. The plan carries an always-free allowance of 1 TB loaded, 100 GB-hours of query compute and 100 GB stored.
From $29/month, or $34/month depending on the plan selected; Better Stack advertises both figures as starting prices on the same page.
Pricing modelA platform fee plus three separate meters — data loaded, query compute in GB-hours, and stored GB — each with an always-free allowance included on every plan and automatic volume discounts above it.One plan covering uptime monitoring, log management and error tracking together, with exceptions counted per month and web events metered by volume and retention rather than by count.
Infrastructure
RegionsTwo, both on AWS: US East 1 and EU Central 1. Axiom calls them edge deployments — you pick one per organisation and event data is stored at rest there, while the console stays at app.axiom.co. Datasets in one organisation can sit in different deployments. New ones are added on request rather than published as a roadmap.EU by default; logs ingestion is priced per region for US, Germany and Singapore, and custom data locations are offered to enterprise accounts.
Observability
Events includedNot counted in events: 500 GB/month data loading, 10 GB-hours query compute and 25 GB storage on free Personal; 1 TB, 100 GB-hours and 100 GB included in the Cloud platform fee.100,000 exceptions and 5,000 session replays a month on the free personal plan, plus 30 GB metrics and 3 GB each of logs, traces and web events. Six meters, priced separately: exceptions at $0.000050 each, replays at $0.00150, metrics at $0.50 per GB per month.
Retention window30 days on the free Personal plan; configurable on Cloud rather than fixed.90 days for errors and session replays. Logs, traces and web events are retained 3 days on the free personal plan, where retention is what the 3 GB allowance buys rather than a fixed window.
Session replay
Not supported — Axiom's own product-analytics page sends session replay to dedicated tools.
Supported
Self-hostable
Limited — Docs FAQ names a Bring Your Own Cloud plan; the deployment answer on the same page describes only managed Axiom Cloud.
Not supported — SaaS only; same page lists Better Stack data ownership as "SaaS-hosted (optional S3 bucket)".
Ingest price per GBNo per-GB rate published: 1 TB/month of data loading is included in the $25/month Cloud platform fee, with further usage metered as compute credits under automatic volume discounts.$0.10 per GB for logs and traces in the Germany region ($0.15 US, $0.35 Singapore) beyond 3 GB/month included; retention billed separately at $0.05 per GB-month in Germany.
Query priceMetered in GB-hours of query compute: 10 GB-hours/month free on Personal and 100 GB-hours/month included on Cloud; no per-GB-hour rate is published.Standard querying included; optional Query boost at $0.001 per GB scanned.
Compliance
SOC 2SOC 2 Type II audited; report available under NDA in the Trust Center.SOC 2 Type 2 compliant; the report is shared under NDA on request.
ISO 27001
ISO 27001 certified information security management.
Not claimed for Better Stack itself; data is stored in DIN ISO/IEC 27001-certified data centres.
HIPAA
BAA available on the Axiom Cloud plan once the RBAC, SAML SSO and audit-log add-ons are enabled; sessions then time out after 24 hours.
Not offered; the security page says Better Stack is currently not HIPAA compliant.
GDPR / data residencyBuilt to support GDPR with a DPA available; regional residency lets you keep data in your chosen region via the multi-region edge architecture.GDPR compliant with a Data Processing Agreement; all data stored in EU regions by default.
Encryption at restAES-256 at rest and TLS 1.2+ in transit; keys are managed and rotated by Axiom.AES-256 at rest and HTTPS/TLS in transit.
Role-based access controlAvailable as a $50/month self-serve add-on on Axiom Cloud, scoped to datasets and actions.Listed as an Enterprise feature alongside team-level isolation, SCIM and SSO enforcement.
Private networking / VPCAWS PrivateLink supported, so AWS workloads can reach Axiom without an internet gateway or NAT.Custom VPC deployment on Enterprise; logs ingestion over AWS Direct Connect at $0.04 per GB.
Dedicated infrastructure
Multi-tenant by design: workspaces are logically isolated on a managed multi-tenant event store; pricing lists dedicated only as a support add-on.
Custom cluster deployment offered on the enterprise tier for logs and traces.

Only criteria both providers publish appear here; a tinted cell marks a real difference. Criteria only one of them documents are listed below, and an absence there means we found no source — not that the feature is missing. How we source this.

The small bar above a value is inetGeek's own lean toward that side — computed from the same facts shown, never a number the provider published. See the picker below "The short answer" to weigh only the criteria you care about.

02.

Where they differ.

Kind of free offer

Axiom
Always free
Better Stack
Free tier
Sources (2) →
  • Pricing — Axiom ↗

    “Personal For individual developers and small projects. $0 / month Permanent. No credit card required. → 500 GB/mo data loading → 10 GB-hours query compute → 25 GB storage → 30-day retention → Full APL access”

    Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction

  • Pricing — Better Stack ↗

    “Free for personal projects $0 per month [...] 100,000 exceptions per month [...] 3 GB web events retained for 3 days”

    Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction

What the free plan includes

Axiom

500 GB of data loading a month, 10 GB-hours of query compute, 25 GB of storage and 30-day retention, with no credit card.

Better Stack

3 GB of logs a month retained 3 days, 100,000 exceptions, and uptime monitoring with on-call and status pages at $0 per member.

Sources (2) →
  • Axiom Pricing ↗

    “→ 500 gb/mo data loading → 10 gb-hours query compute → 25 gb storage → 30-day retention → full apl access → all integrations → community support”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official pricing · Report a correction

  • Better Stack Pricing ↗

    “included 3 gb per month retained for 3 days [...] included 100,000 exceptions”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official pricing · Report a correction

Entry paid plan

Axiom
$25/month platform fee for Cloud, plus usage, with no minimum commitment. The plan carries an always-free allowance of 1 TB loaded, 100 GB-hours of query compute and 100 GB stored.
Better Stack
From $29/month, or $34/month depending on the plan selected; Better Stack advertises both figures as starting prices on the same page.
Sources (2) →

Pricing model

Axiom
A platform fee plus three separate meters — data loaded, query compute in GB-hours, and stored GB — each with an always-free allowance included on every plan and automatic volume discounts above it.
Better Stack
One plan covering uptime monitoring, log management and error tracking together, with exceptions counted per month and web events metered by volume and retention rather than by count.
Sources (2) →
  • Pricing — Axiom ↗

    “Platform fee + usage. No minimum commitment. → Always Free allowance (1 TB / 100 GB-hrs / 100 GB) included → Automatic volume discounts on usage beyond the allowance → Configurable retention”

    Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction

  • Pricing — Better Stack ↗

    “Web events [...] Free for personal projects $0 per month [...] 100,000 exceptions per month [...] 3 GB web events retained for 3 days [...] Free access to Telemetry.”

    Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction

Regions

Axiom
Two, both on AWS: US East 1 and EU Central 1. Axiom calls them edge deployments — you pick one per organisation and event data is stored at rest there, while the console stays at app.axiom.co. Datasets in one organisation can sit in different deployments. New ones are added on request rather than published as a roadmap.
Better Stack
EU by default; logs ingestion is priced per region for US, Germany and Singapore, and custom data locations are offered to enterprise accounts.
Sources (2) →

Events included

Axiom
Not counted in events: 500 GB/month data loading, 10 GB-hours query compute and 25 GB storage on free Personal; 1 TB, 100 GB-hours and 100 GB included in the Cloud platform fee.
Better Stack
100,000 exceptions and 5,000 session replays a month on the free personal plan, plus 30 GB metrics and 3 GB each of logs, traces and web events. Six meters, priced separately: exceptions at $0.000050 each, replays at $0.00150, metrics at $0.50 per GB per month.
Sources (2) →
  • Pricing that scales with you, not against you - Axiom ↗

    “Data loading 500 GB / mo 1 TB / mo (included in platform fee) Query compute 10 GB-hours / mo 100 GB-hours / mo Storage 25 GB 100 GB”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official pricing · Report a correction

  • Pricing — Better Stack ↗

    “Free for personal projects $0 per month [...] 100,000 exceptions per month 5,000 session replays 3 GB logs retained for 3 days 3 GB traces retained for 3 days 30 GB metrics 3 GB web events retained for 3 days [...] Additional exceptions $0.000050 per exception [...] Additional session replays $0.00150 per session replay”

    Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction

Retention window

Axiom
30 days on the free Personal plan; configurable on Cloud rather than fixed.
Better Stack
90 days for errors and session replays. Logs, traces and web events are retained 3 days on the free personal plan, where retention is what the 3 GB allowance buys rather than a fixed window.
Sources (2) →
  • Pricing — Axiom ↗

    “→ 25 GB storage → 30-day retention → Full APL access [...] → Configurable retention”

    Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction

  • Pricing — Better Stack ↗

    “Error tracking [...] Retention 90 days [...] Session replay [...] Retention 90 days [...] Free for personal projects [...] 3 GB logs retained for 3 days 3 GB traces retained for 3 days [...] 3 GB web events retained for 3 days”

    Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction

Session replay

Axiom
Not supported — Axiom's own product-analytics page sends session replay to dedicated tools.
Better Stack
Supported
Sources (2) →
  • Product Analytics - Axiom ↗

    “Not a replacement for every analytics tool. Session replay, heatmaps, and marketing attribution still belong in dedicated tools.”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official site · Report a correction

  • Pricing — Better Stack ↗

    “Session replay [...] See how your users interact with your product. Watch at 2x speed, skip pauses, view correlated errors, traces, logs, and events. [...] Included 5,000 session replays [...] Additional session replays $0.00150 per session replay [...] Retention 90 days”

    Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction

Self-hostable

Axiom
Limited — Docs FAQ names a Bring Your Own Cloud plan; the deployment answer on the same page describes only managed Axiom Cloud.
Better Stack
Not supported — SaaS only; same page lists Better Stack data ownership as "SaaS-hosted (optional S3 bucket)".
Sources (2) →

Ingest price per GB

Axiom
No per-GB rate published: 1 TB/month of data loading is included in the $25/month Cloud platform fee, with further usage metered as compute credits under automatic volume discounts.
Better Stack
$0.10 per GB for logs and traces in the Germany region ($0.15 US, $0.35 Singapore) beyond 3 GB/month included; retention billed separately at $0.05 per GB-month in Germany.
Sources (2) →

Query price

Axiom
Metered in GB-hours of query compute: 10 GB-hours/month free on Personal and 100 GB-hours/month included on Cloud; no per-GB-hour rate is published.
Better Stack
Standard querying included; optional Query boost at $0.001 per GB scanned.
Sources (2) →

SOC 2

Axiom
SOC 2 Type II audited; report available under NDA in the Trust Center.
Better Stack
SOC 2 Type 2 compliant; the report is shared under NDA on request.
Sources (2) →

ISO 27001

Axiom
ISO 27001 certified information security management.
Better Stack
Not claimed for Better Stack itself; data is stored in DIN ISO/IEC 27001-certified data centres.
Sources (2) →

HIPAA

Axiom
BAA available on the Axiom Cloud plan once the RBAC, SAML SSO and audit-log add-ons are enabled; sessions then time out after 24 hours.
Better Stack
Not offered; the security page says Better Stack is currently not HIPAA compliant.
Sources (2) →

GDPR / data residency

Axiom
Built to support GDPR with a DPA available; regional residency lets you keep data in your chosen region via the multi-region edge architecture.
Better Stack
GDPR compliant with a Data Processing Agreement; all data stored in EU regions by default.
Sources (2) →

Encryption at rest

Axiom
AES-256 at rest and TLS 1.2+ in transit; keys are managed and rotated by Axiom.
Better Stack
AES-256 at rest and HTTPS/TLS in transit.
Sources (2) →

Role-based access control

Axiom
Available as a $50/month self-serve add-on on Axiom Cloud, scoped to datasets and actions.
Better Stack
Listed as an Enterprise feature alongside team-level isolation, SCIM and SSO enforcement.
Sources (2) →

Private networking / VPC

Axiom
AWS PrivateLink supported, so AWS workloads can reach Axiom without an internet gateway or NAT.
Better Stack
Custom VPC deployment on Enterprise; logs ingestion over AWS Direct Connect at $0.04 per GB.
Sources (2) →

Dedicated infrastructure

Axiom
Multi-tenant by design: workspaces are logically isolated on a managed multi-tenant event store; pricing lists dedicated only as a support add-on.
Better Stack
Custom cluster deployment offered on the enterprise tier for logs and traces.
Sources (2) →

When these numbers change, hear about it. Sources are re-checked monthly; a repricing goes out as a short note.

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03.

Documented by only one.

These criteria are published by one provider and not the other. An absence here means we have not found a source, not that the feature is missing — except where we say we read the other provider's own page on a given date and it does not state it. Those rows lean, and the provider can correct them with a link.

Credit card to startAxiom: No
When you exceed a capAxiom: Billed, then paused per meter. Charges accrue past the Always Free allowance until they reach the spending limit you set, at which point Axiom stops the actions that cost money — and it stops them meter by meter: exhausting query compute halts queries and the monitors that depend on them while ingestion keeps running on an unspent data-loading allowance. Axiom says plainly that this can interrupt service.
Uptime SLAAxiom: Sold rather than included: the paid plan lists a paid SLA alongside dedicated support. No percentage is published on the pricing page.
Audit logsAxiom: Every access and configuration change is recorded to an immutable audit trail you can query in APL like any other dataset.
Support on entry paid planAxiom: Community support on the free Personal plan; email support on the paid plan, with a paid SLA and dedicated support offered as add-ons.
PCI DSSBetter Stack: Not certified itself: card data is never stored and payments run through Stripe, a PCI Service Provider Level 1.
Customer-managed keysBetter Stack: Not offered. Better Stack's own comparison says it has no equivalent to Honeycomb's Secure Tenancy (customer-managed-key encryption).
04.

Questions this comparison answers.

Entry paid plan: Axiom or Better Stack?

Axiom: $25/month platform fee for Cloud, plus usage, with no minimum commitment. The plan carries an always-free allowance of 1 TB loaded, 100 GB-hours of query compute and 100 GB stored.

Better Stack: From $29/month, or $34/month depending on the plan selected; Better Stack advertises both figures as starting prices on the same page.

Should I choose Axiom or Better Stack?

Pick Axiom if Small projects that want a real telemetry platform for nothing — 500 GB a month loaded with 30-day retention, permanently, is the most generous free allowance in this category.

Pick Better Stack if Teams who would otherwise buy uptime monitoring, log management and error tracking separately, and would rather have one bill and one dashboard.

Provider pages

AxiomEvent platform for logs and traces with a permanent free allowance on every plan and separate compute billing for queries.Better StackUptime monitoring, log management and error tracking on one plan, with exceptions and web events metered separately.

Related comparisons

Axiom vs DatadogAxiom vs Elastic CloudAxiom vs GlitchTipAxiom vs Grafana CloudAxiom vs OpenObserveAxiom vs SentryAxiom vs SigNozBetter Stack vs Datadog

Comments

Every page here is sourced and dated.