Better Stack vs Grafana Cloud
SEPT 2026 auditA comparison of Better Stack and Grafana Cloud built from values read directly from each provider's own documentation, with the source recorded against every figure.
The short answer
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
Choose Grafana Cloud if…
Metrics-heavy monitoring where 13 months of retention matters — that window is an order of magnitude beyond what the error trackers and most telemetry platforms keep.
Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved
Consider something else if…
- 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.
- Grafana Cloud: Logs and traces get 30 days rather than 13 months, so the headline retention figure does not describe most of what you send it.
3 sourced criteria separate them — see where, with sources, below.
Pick the criteria you care about. The chart counts how many of them lean toward each provider — the same read as scanning the bars below, just totalled for the ones you chose.
Better Stack 0
Grafana Cloud 0
At a glance.
| Criterion | Better Stack | Grafana Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | ||
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Entry paid plan | From $29/month, or $34/month depending on the plan selected; Better Stack advertises both figures as starting prices on the same page. | $19/month platform fee for Pro, which includes 10,000 active series before usage billing starts. |
| Pricing model | 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. | A $19 platform fee plus metered usage, with volume discounts applied automatically rather than negotiated. The enterprise tier starts at a $25,000 annual spend commitment. |
| Observability | ||
| Retention window | 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. | 13 months for metrics and 30 days for logs, traces, profiles and k6 tests on Pro. The free tier is 14 days for everything. |
Where they differ.
Entry paid plan
- 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.
- Grafana Cloud
- $19/month platform fee for Pro, which includes 10,000 active series before usage billing starts.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Pricing — Better Stack ↗
“Starts at just $34 [...] Starts at just $29”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing
- Pricing — Grafana Cloud ↗
“Pro Self-serve From $19 / month + usage with volume discounts [...] Platform fee of $19 per month includes: 10k active series per month then pay as you go 13 months retention”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing
Pricing model
- 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.
- Grafana Cloud
- A $19 platform fee plus metered usage, with volume discounts applied automatically rather than negotiated. The enterprise tier starts at a $25,000 annual spend commitment.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- 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
- Pricing — Grafana Cloud ↗
“From $19 / month + usage with volume discounts [...] Automatic volume discounts [...] Enterprise Full service Starts at $25,000 / year spend commit”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing
Retention window
- 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.
- Grafana Cloud
- 13 months for metrics and 30 days for logs, traces, profiles and k6 tests on Pro. The free tier is 14 days for everything.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- 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
- Pricing — Grafana Cloud ↗
“13 months retention for metrics; 30 days retention for logs, traces, profiles, & k6 performance tests [...] Limited to 50 GB ingested per month 14 day retention”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing
When these numbers change, hear about it. Sources are re-checked monthly; a repricing goes out as a short note.
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.
Questions this comparison answers.
Entry paid plan: Better Stack or Grafana Cloud?
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.
Grafana Cloud: $19/month platform fee for Pro, which includes 10,000 active series before usage billing starts.
Should I choose Better Stack or Grafana Cloud?
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.
Pick Grafana Cloud if Metrics-heavy monitoring where 13 months of retention matters — that window is an order of magnitude beyond what the error trackers and most telemetry platforms keep.