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Axiom vs Elastic Cloud

SEPT 2026 audit

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

Reviewed by Palash BagchiUpdated 29 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 Elastic Cloud if…

Teams that need full-text search and observability on the same underlying engine, or that want the option to self-host later — Elastic's dual identity as a search platform and an observability platform is the actual differentiator against single-purpose competitors.

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.
  • Elastic Cloud: The need is narrowly error tracking or APM — a purpose-built tool is usually simpler to operate than standing up an Elasticsearch cluster for one workload, and Elastic Cloud's per-resource pricing doesn't publish a flat entry price the way single-purpose competitors do.

Neither quite fits? Every other option, ranked by iScore: Axiom alternatives · Elastic Cloud alternatives

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

Visit Axiom documentationVisit Elastic Cloud 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.

CriterionAxiomElastic Cloud
Pricing
Free tier
Yes
No — The only free offer here is a trial; no ongoing free tier is listed beside the Hosted and Serverless plans.
Kind of free offerAlways freeFree trial — The only free offer here is a trial; no ongoing free tier is listed beside the Hosted and Serverless plans.
Credit card to startNoNo
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.
Elastic Cloud Hosted Standard, cheapest of four subscription tiers: as low as $99 per month for a production config of 120 GB storage across 2 zones. Gold $114, Platinum $131, Enterprise $184 per month on the same config basis. Serverless is metered, no plan fee.
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.Three deployment options priced differently: Hosted is resource-based, Serverless is usage-based — both pay-as-you-go monthly or prepaid — and Self-managed is licensed by node count and RAM.
Infrastructure
Regions
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.
Hosted: 60 regions across AWS, Azure and Google Cloud (also Alibaba Cloud and FedRAMP). Serverless: generally available on AWS, Google Cloud and Azure.
Uptime SLASold rather than included: the paid plan lists a paid SLA alongside dedicated support. No percentage is published on the pricing page.99.95% monthly, for the Platinum and Enterprise subscription tiers, on both Hosted and Serverless. Not applicable to self-managed, where the customer operates the infrastructure.
Observability
Retention window30 days on the free Personal plan; configurable on Cloud rather than fixed.No fixed window on Serverless: retention is priced per GB retained per month, as low as $0.017 (Logs Essentials) or $0.019 (Complete), and $0.005 for metrics.
Self-hostable
Limited — Docs FAQ names a Bring Your Own Cloud plan; the deployment answer on the same page describes only managed Axiom Cloud.
Supported
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.As low as $0.07 per GB ingested (logs, traces, RUM) on Serverless Observability Logs Essentials; as low as $0.09 on Observability Complete, with metrics at $0.023.
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.No separate query meter on Serverless Observability: billing is ingest plus retention only, with egress 50 GB free then $0.05 per GB.
Support
Support on entry paid planCommunity support on the free Personal plan; email support on the paid plan, with a paid SLA and dedicated support offered as add-ons.Four support tiers, keyed to the Elastic Cloud subscription tier rather than bought separately. Platinum and Enterprise share an identical support SLA.
Compliance
SOC 2SOC 2 Type II audited; report available under NDA in the Trust Center.SOC 2 Type 2 audit by Coalfire covers Elasticsearch Service and support subscriptions; report available on request via the Trust Center.
ISO 27001ISO 27001 certified information security management.Information Security Program certified on ISO 27001, including ISO 27017 and ISO 27018.
HIPAABAA 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.HIPAA business associate agreements available on all Elastic Cloud subscription tiers on AWS, Azure and Google Cloud.
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.Operates in compliance with GDPR principles; customers can request a Data Processing Addendum through a support case.
Encryption at restAES-256 at rest and TLS 1.2+ in transit; keys are managed and rotated by Axiom.Cluster data is encrypted at rest by default; TLS between Elasticsearch nodes and from the internet.
Role-based access controlAvailable as a $50/month self-serve add-on on Axiom Cloud, scoped to datasets and actions.Predefined cloud resource roles (Admin, Editor, Viewer, billing admin) for Hosted and Serverless; custom roles can be created on Serverless projects.
Private networking / VPCAWS PrivateLink supported, so AWS workloads can reach Axiom without an internet gateway or NAT.AWS PrivateLink and Azure Private Link for Hosted and Serverless; GCP Private Service Connect for Hosted only. IP filtering can be combined with private connections.
Dedicated infrastructureMulti-tenant by design: workspaces are logically isolated on a managed multi-tenant event store; pricing lists dedicated only as a support add-on.Elasticsearch nodes run in isolated containers under least privilege; containers have no means of communicating with containers from another cluster. Scope: container-level isolation between customer clusters; no dedicated-hardware option is offered on this page.

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.

Free tier

Axiom
Yes
Elastic Cloud
No — The only free offer here is a trial; no ongoing free tier is listed beside the Hosted and Serverless plans.
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

  • Elastic Cloud Pricing ↗

    “Elastic Cloud Serverless Zero operational load so that you can build faster Start free trial Elastic Cloud Hosted Deploy and scale on any cloud in minutes with ultimate control Start free trial”

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

Kind of free offer

Axiom
Always free
Elastic Cloud
Free trial — The only free offer here is a trial; no ongoing free tier is listed beside the Hosted and Serverless plans.
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

  • Elastic Cloud Pricing ↗

    “Elastic Cloud Serverless Zero operational load so that you can build faster Start free trial Elastic Cloud Hosted Deploy and scale on any cloud in minutes with ultimate control Start free trial”

    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.
Elastic Cloud
Elastic Cloud Hosted Standard, cheapest of four subscription tiers: as low as $99 per month for a production config of 120 GB storage across 2 zones. Gold $114, Platinum $131, Enterprise $184 per month on the same config basis. Serverless is metered, no plan fee.
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.
Elastic Cloud
Three deployment options priced differently: Hosted is resource-based, Serverless is usage-based — both pay-as-you-go monthly or prepaid — and Self-managed is licensed by node count and RAM.
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

  • Elastic Cloud Pricing ↗

    “Pricing Resource based pricing Pay as you go (monthly) or prepaid Usage based pricing Pay as you go (monthly) or prepaid License-based pricing Licensing based on number of nodes and used RAM”

    Read 2026-09-14 · 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.

Elastic Cloud

Hosted: 60 regions across AWS, Azure and Google Cloud (also Alibaba Cloud and FedRAMP). Serverless: generally available on AWS, Google Cloud and Azure.

Sources (2) →

Uptime SLA

Axiom
Sold rather than included: the paid plan lists a paid SLA alongside dedicated support. No percentage is published on the pricing page.
Elastic Cloud
99.95% monthly, for the Platinum and Enterprise subscription tiers, on both Hosted and Serverless. Not applicable to self-managed, where the customer operates the infrastructure.
Sources (2) →
  • Axiom Pricing ↗

    “compute credit pre-purchase for deeper discounts → all integrations → email support (paid SLA + dedicated available)”

    Read 2026-09-14 · official pricing · Report a correction

  • Elastic Cloud Pricing ↗

    “uptime sla 99.95% monthly uptime sla for platinum and enterprise subscription tiers see elastic cloud hosted sla for more details”

    Read 2026-09-14 · official pricing · Report a correction

Retention window

Axiom
30 days on the free Personal plan; configurable on Cloud rather than fixed.
Elastic Cloud
No fixed window on Serverless: retention is priced per GB retained per month, as low as $0.017 (Logs Essentials) or $0.019 (Complete), and $0.005 for metrics.
Sources (2) →

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.
Elastic Cloud
Supported
Sources (2) →
  • Frequently asked questions - Axiom Docs ↗

    “How is Axiom deployed? Axiom offers Axiom Cloud, a fully managed cloud service with usage-based pricing. [...] For the Bring Your Own Cloud plan, the platform fee is billed on an annual basis.”

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

  • Elastic Subscriptions ↗

    “Elastic self-managed subscriptions The Elastic Stack - Elasticsearch, Kibana, and Integrations - powers a variety of use cases. And we have flexible plans to help you get the most out of your on-prem subscriptions. [...] Available under the Elastic License. Select features are also available under SSPL or Apache License 2.0.”

    Read 2026-09-14 · official site · Report a correction

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.
Elastic Cloud
As low as $0.07 per GB ingested (logs, traces, RUM) on Serverless Observability Logs Essentials; as low as $0.09 on Observability Complete, with metrics at $0.023.
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.
Elastic Cloud
No separate query meter on Serverless Observability: billing is ingest plus retention only, with egress 50 GB free then $0.05 per GB.
Sources (2) →

Support on entry paid plan

Axiom
Community support on the free Personal plan; email support on the paid plan, with a paid SLA and dedicated support offered as add-ons.
Elastic Cloud
Four support tiers, keyed to the Elastic Cloud subscription tier rather than bought separately. Platinum and Enterprise share an identical support SLA.
Sources (2) →
  • Axiom Pricing ↗

    “all integrations → community support [...] email support (paid SLA + dedicated available)”

    Read 2026-09-14 · official pricing · Report a correction

  • Elastic Cloud Pricing ↗

    “four support tiers, depending on the elastic cloud subscription tier two subscription tiers (platinum and enterprise) with identical support sla”

    Read 2026-09-14 · official pricing · Report a correction

SOC 2

Axiom
SOC 2 Type II audited; report available under NDA in the Trust Center.
Elastic Cloud
SOC 2 Type 2 audit by Coalfire covers Elasticsearch Service and support subscriptions; report available on request via the Trust Center.
Sources (2) →

ISO 27001

Axiom
ISO 27001 certified information security management.
Elastic Cloud
Information Security Program certified on ISO 27001, including ISO 27017 and ISO 27018.
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.
Elastic Cloud
HIPAA business associate agreements available on all Elastic Cloud subscription tiers on AWS, Azure and Google Cloud.
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.
Elastic Cloud
Operates in compliance with GDPR principles; customers can request a Data Processing Addendum through a support case.
Sources (2) →

Encryption at rest

Axiom
AES-256 at rest and TLS 1.2+ in transit; keys are managed and rotated by Axiom.
Elastic Cloud
Cluster data is encrypted at rest by default; TLS between Elasticsearch nodes and from the internet.
Sources (2) →

Role-based access control

Axiom
Available as a $50/month self-serve add-on on Axiom Cloud, scoped to datasets and actions.
Elastic Cloud
Predefined cloud resource roles (Admin, Editor, Viewer, billing admin) for Hosted and Serverless; custom roles can be created on Serverless projects.
Sources (2) →

Private networking / VPC

Axiom
AWS PrivateLink supported, so AWS workloads can reach Axiom without an internet gateway or NAT.
Elastic Cloud
AWS PrivateLink and Azure Private Link for Hosted and Serverless; GCP Private Service Connect for Hosted only. IP filtering can be combined with private connections.
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.
Elastic Cloud
Elasticsearch nodes run in isolated containers under least privilege; containers have no means of communicating with containers from another cluster. Scope: container-level isolation between customer clusters; no dedicated-hardware option is offered on this page.
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.

What the free plan includesAxiom: 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.
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.
Events includedAxiom: 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.
Session replayAxiom: Not supported — Axiom's own product-analytics page sends session replay to dedicated tools.
Audit logsAxiom: Every access and configuration change is recorded to an immutable audit trail you can query in APL like any other dataset.Elastic Cloud: not stated on its own page when read on 2026-09-22 — corrections welcome · every such claim about Elastic Cloud.
Hybrid search (vector + keyword)Elastic Cloud: Supported — combines vector similarity scores with BM25F text-relevance scores in a single hybrid query.
Metadata filteringElastic Cloud: Supported — vector search results can be filtered by metadata while preserving approximate nearest neighbor (ANN) search speed.
PCI DSSElastic Cloud: PCI DSS listed among the certifications in the Elastic Trust Center, alongside SOC 2, ISO 27001 and FedRAMP.
Customer-managed keysElastic Cloud: Supported on Elastic Cloud Hosted via your cloud provider KMS, but only at the Enterprise subscription level; the key cannot yet be changed or removed once set.
04.

Questions this comparison answers.

Entry paid plan: Axiom or Elastic Cloud?

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.

Elastic Cloud: Elastic Cloud Hosted Standard, cheapest of four subscription tiers: as low as $99 per month for a production config of 120 GB storage across 2 zones. Gold $114, Platinum $131, Enterprise $184 per month on the same config basis. Serverless is metered, no plan fee.

Free tier: Axiom or Elastic Cloud?

Axiom: Yes

Elastic Cloud: No — The only free offer here is a trial; no ongoing free tier is listed beside the Hosted and Serverless plans.

Should I choose Axiom or Elastic Cloud?

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 Elastic Cloud if Teams that need full-text search and observability on the same underlying engine, or that want the option to self-host later — Elastic's dual identity as a search platform and an observability platform is the actual differentiator against single-purpose competitors.

Provider pages

AxiomEvent platform for logs and traces with a permanent free allowance on every plan and separate compute billing for queries.Elastic CloudManaged Elasticsearch, Kibana and Elastic Observability, hosted or serverless across AWS, Google Cloud and Azure.

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Comments

Every page here is sourced and dated.