Better Stack vs SigNoz
SEPT 2026 auditA comparison of Better Stack and SigNoz 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 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…
- 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.
- SigNoz: $0.30 per GB is six times OpenObserve's rate, so a high-volume log pipeline pays a large premium for the packaging.
4 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
SigNoz 0
At a glance.
| Criterion | Better Stack | SigNoz |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | ||
| Free tier | Yes | No |
| 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. | $49/month for Teams, and the $49 is usage credit rather than a fee on top — SigNoz bills against it before charging more. |
| 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. | 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. |
| 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. | 15 days by default for logs and traces, selectable up to 30, 90, 180 days or 1 year at higher rates. |
Where they differ.
Free tier
- Better Stack
- Yes
- SigNoz
- No
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- 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
- 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
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.
- 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) →Sources ↓
- Pricing — Better Stack ↗
“Starts at just $34 [...] Starts at just $29”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing
- 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
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.
- 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) →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 — 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
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.
- SigNoz
- 15 days by default for logs and traces, selectable up to 30, 90, 180 days or 1 year at higher rates.
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 — SigNoz ↗
“Logs $ 0.3 /GB ingested 15 days retention 15 days retention 30 days retention 90 days retention 180 days retention 1 year 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 SigNoz?
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.
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: Better Stack or SigNoz?
Better Stack: Yes
SigNoz: No
Should I choose Better Stack or SigNoz?
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 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.