Skip to content
inetGeek

Axiom vs SigNoz

SEPT 2026 audit

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

Reviewed by Palash BagchiUpdated 25 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 SigNoz if…

Teams that want per-GB billing without per-host or per-seat charges, and the option to run the same product themselves rather than being locked to the cloud version.

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.
  • SigNoz: $0.30 per GB is six times OpenObserve's rate, so a high-volume log pipeline pays a large premium for the packaging.

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

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

Visit Axiom documentationVisit SigNoz 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.

CriterionAxiomSigNoz
Pricing
Free tier
Yes
No
Kind of free offerAlways freeFree trial
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.$49/month for Teams, and the $49 is usage credit rather than a fee on top — SigNoz bills against it before charging more.
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.Per GB ingested, with no per-user, per-host or custom-metric pricing — SigNoz states all three exclusions explicitly. Retention is a per-signal choice that changes the rate.
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.US, EU and India data centres for SigNoz Cloud; Enterprise Cloud lets you pick the region.
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.No events meter: SigNoz Cloud bills traces and logs per GB and metrics per million samples. The $49/month Teams minimum includes $49 of usage — e.g. 163 GB of logs or traces, or 490 mn metric samples.
Retention window
30 days on the free Personal plan; configurable on Cloud rather than fixed.
15 days by default for logs and traces, selectable up to 30, 90, 180 days or 1 year at higher rates.
Session replayNot supported — Axiom's own product-analytics page sends session replay to dedicated tools.Not supported — SigNoz's own table of capabilities it does not offer today marks Session Replays No for SigNoz Cloud.
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.$0.30 per GB ingested for logs, and the same for traces. Retention is chosen per signal and priced with it.
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 charge for querying on SigNoz Cloud: query compute is included in the $0.30/GB ingestion price, with no dashboard or API charges.
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.In-product chat, email and Slack on the usage-based cloud plan. Enterprise, from $4,000/month, adds data residency and compliance.
Compliance
SOC 2SOC 2 Type II audited; report available under NDA in the Trust Center.SOC 2 Type 2 compliant on SigNoz Cloud.
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 compliant, with a BAA available as an add-on for eligible SigNoz Cloud contracts.
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.Data residency via US, EU and India regions so data need not leave its region; Enterprise Cloud selects the region.
Encryption at restAES-256 at rest and TLS 1.2+ in transit; keys are managed and rotated by Axiom.Encrypted at rest and in transit on the Enterprise offering.
Role-based access controlAvailable as a $50/month self-serve add-on on Axiom Cloud, scoped to datasets and actions.Role-based access control included; fine-grained RBAC is listed as beta on the pricing comparison.
Private networking / VPC
AWS PrivateLink supported, so AWS workloads can reach Axiom without an internet gateway or NAT.
BYOC / Enterprise Self-Hosted runs the SigNoz stack inside your own AWS/GCP/Azure account, so your data never leaves your VPC. From the deployment-options section: Enterprise Self-Hosted / BYOC, alongside a fully managed Enterprise Cloud.
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.
Enterprise offers SigNoz Cloud: Dedicated, Enterprise Self-Hosted, and a bring-your-own-cloud option run by SigNoz in your account.

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
SigNoz
No
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 — SigNoz ↗

    “Teams For fast-scaling teams that need observability to scale with them. starts from $199 $49 /month [...] After the included $49 of usage [...] Most teams start with Teams Cloud free trial”

    Read 2026-09-07 · official pricing · Report a correction

Kind of free offer

Axiom
Always free
SigNoz
Free trial
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

  • SigNoz Pricing ↗

    “most teams start with teams cloud free trial to test with real data, then decide based on their specific needs.”

    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.
SigNoz
$49/month for Teams, and the $49 is usage credit rather than a fee on top — SigNoz bills against it before charging more.
Sources (2) →
  • Pricing — Axiom ↗

    “Cloud For teams scaling from first deployment to hyperscale. $25 / month Platform fee + usage. No minimum commitment. → Always Free allowance (1 TB / 100 GB-hrs / 100 GB) included”

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

  • Pricing — SigNoz ↗

    “Teams For fast-scaling teams that need observability to scale with them. starts from $199 $49 /month [...] After the included $49 of usage”

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

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.
SigNoz
Per GB ingested, with no per-user, per-host or custom-metric pricing — SigNoz states all three exclusions explicitly. Retention is a per-signal choice that changes the rate.
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 — SigNoz ↗

    “Simple Usage-based Predictable Observability Costs No user-based pricing No host-based pricing No special pricing for custom metrics”

    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.
SigNoz
US, EU and India data centres for SigNoz Cloud; Enterprise Cloud lets you pick the region.
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.
SigNoz
No events meter: SigNoz Cloud bills traces and logs per GB and metrics per million samples. The $49/month Teams minimum includes $49 of usage — e.g. 163 GB of logs or traces, or 490 mn metric samples.
Sources (2) →

Retention window

Axiom

30 days on the free Personal plan; configurable on Cloud rather than fixed.

SigNoz

15 days by default for logs and traces, selectable up to 30, 90, 180 days or 1 year at higher rates.

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.
SigNoz
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

  • Pricing — SigNoz ↗

    “SigNoz Cloud: BYOC, managed by SigNoz in your cloud account Self-Hosted SigNoz: enterprise support. Your team operates infrastructure, storage, scaling, upgrades, and backups.”

    Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · 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.
SigNoz
$0.30 per GB ingested for logs, and the same for traces. Retention is chosen per signal and priced with it.
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.
SigNoz
No charge for querying on SigNoz Cloud: query compute is included in the $0.30/GB ingestion price, with no dashboard or API charges.
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.
SigNoz
In-product chat, email and Slack on the usage-based cloud plan. Enterprise, from $4,000/month, adds data residency and compliance.
Sources (2) →
  • Axiom Pricing ↗

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

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

  • SigNoz Pricing ↗

    “add unlimited teammates and monitor any number of hosts support via in-product chat, email, and slack soc2 type ii & hipaa compliant [...] for larger orgs that need data residency, compliance and support. custom starts at $4000/month”

    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.
SigNoz
SOC 2 Type 2 compliant on SigNoz Cloud.
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.
SigNoz
HIPAA compliant, with a BAA available as an add-on for eligible SigNoz Cloud contracts.
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.
SigNoz
Data residency via US, EU and India regions so data need not leave its region; Enterprise Cloud selects the region.
Sources (2) →

Encryption at rest

Axiom
AES-256 at rest and TLS 1.2+ in transit; keys are managed and rotated by Axiom.
SigNoz
Encrypted at rest and in transit on the Enterprise offering.
Sources (2) →

Role-based access control

Axiom
Available as a $50/month self-serve add-on on Axiom Cloud, scoped to datasets and actions.
SigNoz
Role-based access control included; fine-grained RBAC is listed as beta on the pricing comparison.
Sources (2) →

Private networking / VPC

Axiom
AWS PrivateLink supported, so AWS workloads can reach Axiom without an internet gateway or NAT.
SigNoz
BYOC / Enterprise Self-Hosted runs the SigNoz stack inside your own AWS/GCP/Azure account, so your data never leaves your VPC. From the deployment-options section: Enterprise Self-Hosted / BYOC, alongside a fully managed Enterprise Cloud.
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.
SigNoz
Enterprise offers SigNoz Cloud: Dedicated, Enterprise Self-Hosted, and a bring-your-own-cloud option run by SigNoz in your account.
Sources (2) →

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

Confirm by email; unsubscribe from any issue. Your address goes to Kit and nowhere else — what we do with it.

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.
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.SigNoz: not stated on its own page when read on 2026-09-21 — corrections welcome · every such claim about SigNoz.
ISO 27001Axiom: ISO 27001 certified information security management.
04.

Questions this comparison answers.

Entry paid plan: Axiom or SigNoz?

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.

SigNoz: $49/month for Teams, and the $49 is usage credit rather than a fee on top — SigNoz bills against it before charging more.

Free tier: Axiom or SigNoz?

Axiom: Yes

SigNoz: No

Should I choose Axiom or SigNoz?

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 SigNoz if Teams that want per-GB billing without per-host or per-seat charges, and the option to run the same product themselves rather than being locked to the cloud version.

Provider pages

AxiomEvent platform for logs and traces with a permanent free allowance on every plan and separate compute billing for queries.SigNozOpen-source observability for logs, metrics and traces, billed per GB ingested with retention chosen per signal.

Related comparisons

Axiom vs Better StackAxiom vs DatadogAxiom vs Elastic CloudAxiom vs GlitchTipAxiom vs Grafana CloudAxiom vs OpenObserveAxiom vs SentryBetter Stack vs SigNoz

Comments

Every page here is sourced and dated.