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Elastic Cloud vs Grafana Cloud

SEPT 2026 audit

A comparison of Elastic Cloud and Grafana Cloud 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 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

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…

  • 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.
  • 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.

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

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

Visit Elastic Cloud documentationVisit Grafana 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.

CriterionElastic CloudGrafana Cloud
Pricing
Free tier
No — The only free offer here is a trial; no ongoing free tier is listed beside the Hosted and Serverless plans.
Yes
Kind of free offerFree trial — The only free offer here is a trial; no ongoing free tier is listed beside the Hosted and Serverless plans.Free tier
Credit card to startNoNo
Entry paid plan
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.
$19/month platform fee for Pro, which includes 10,000 active series before usage billing starts.
Pricing modelThree 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.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.
Infrastructure
Regions
Hosted: 60 regions across AWS, Azure and Google Cloud (also Alibaba Cloud and FedRAMP). Serverless: generally available on AWS, Google Cloud and Azure.
28 region/provider combinations across AWS, GCP and Azure, from US East and EU Germany to UK, India, Singapore, Japan, Brazil and Australia; a stack cannot change region after creation.
Observability
Retention windowNo 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.13 months for metrics and 30 days for logs, traces, profiles and k6 tests on Pro. The free tier is 14 days for everything.
Self-hostableSupportedSupported
Ingest price per GBAs 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.From $0.050 per GB processed, falling to $0.046 above 10,000 GB and $0.044 above 25,000 with automatic volume discounts.
Support
Support on entry paid planFour support tiers, keyed to the Elastic Cloud subscription tier rather than bought separately. Platinum and Enterprise share an identical support SLA.Community support on Free; 8x5 email support on Pro, from $19/month plus usage. Enterprise starts at $25,000/year.
Compliance
SOC 2SOC 2 Type 2 audit by Coalfire covers Elasticsearch Service and support subscriptions; report available on request via the Trust Center.SOC 2 report listed in the Grafana Labs Trust Center, available on request.
ISO 27001Information Security Program certified on ISO 27001, including ISO 27017 and ISO 27018.ISO/IEC 27001 certificate and Statement of Applicability listed in the Trust Center.
GDPR / data residencyOperates in compliance with GDPR principles; customers can request a Data Processing Addendum through a support case.GDPR, EU-US DPF and UK/Swiss extensions listed in the Trust Center with a DPA; residency comes from choosing one of the published regions at stack creation.
PCI DSSPCI DSS listed among the certifications in the Elastic Trust Center, alongside SOC 2, ISO 27001 and FedRAMP.PCI DSS v4.0.1 listed among Trust Center compliance documents.
Encryption at restCluster data is encrypted at rest by default; TLS between Elasticsearch nodes and from the internet.AES-256 for storage and HTTPS/TLS in transit; Grafana Cloud manages the keys with industry-standard key management systems.
Customer-managed keys
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.
Keys are managed by Grafana Cloud with industry-standard key management systems. — Read from the Grafana Assistant security page, which describes how Grafana Cloud stores customer data.
Role-based access controlPredefined cloud resource roles (Admin, Editor, Viewer, billing admin) for Hosted and Serverless; custom roles can be created on Serverless projects.Grafana Cloud administrative controls and role-based access control (RBAC).
Private networking / VPCAWS PrivateLink and Azure Private Link for Hosted and Serverless; GCP Private Service Connect for Hosted only. IP filtering can be combined with private connections.AWS PrivateLink, Azure Private Link and GCP Private Service Connect are documented connectivity options for Grafana Cloud.
Dedicated infrastructure
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.
Bring Your Own Cloud deploys the managed stack into a dedicated cloud account in your AWS or GCP (Azure case-by-case) rather than a Grafana Labs-owned 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

Elastic Cloud
No — The only free offer here is a trial; no ongoing free tier is listed beside the Hosted and Serverless plans.
Grafana Cloud
Yes
Sources (2) →

Kind of free offer

Elastic Cloud
Free trial — The only free offer here is a trial; no ongoing free tier is listed beside the Hosted and Serverless plans.
Grafana Cloud
Free tier
Sources (2) →

Entry paid plan

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.
Grafana Cloud
$19/month platform fee for Pro, which includes 10,000 active series before usage billing starts.
Sources (2) →

Pricing model

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.
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) →
  • 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

  • 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 · Report a correction

Regions

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.

Grafana Cloud

28 region/provider combinations across AWS, GCP and Azure, from US East and EU Germany to UK, India, Singapore, Japan, Brazil and Australia; a stack cannot change region after creation.

Sources (2) →

Retention window

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.
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) →

Ingest price per GB

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.
Grafana Cloud
From $0.050 per GB processed, falling to $0.046 above 10,000 GB and $0.044 above 25,000 with automatic volume discounts.
Sources (2) →

Support on entry paid plan

Elastic Cloud
Four support tiers, keyed to the Elastic Cloud subscription tier rather than bought separately. Platinum and Enterprise share an identical support SLA.
Grafana Cloud
Community support on Free; 8x5 email support on Pro, from $19/month plus usage. Enterprise starts at $25,000/year.
Sources (2) →
  • 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

  • Grafana Cloud Pricing ↗

    “benefits: all Grafana Cloud services, with limited usage community support 14 days retention for metrics, logs, traces, profiles, & k6 performance tests [...] everything in free plus: pay as you go above the free tier 8x5 email support 13 months retention for metrics”

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

SOC 2

Elastic Cloud
SOC 2 Type 2 audit by Coalfire covers Elasticsearch Service and support subscriptions; report available on request via the Trust Center.
Grafana Cloud
SOC 2 report listed in the Grafana Labs Trust Center, available on request.
Sources (2) →

ISO 27001

Elastic Cloud
Information Security Program certified on ISO 27001, including ISO 27017 and ISO 27018.
Grafana Cloud
ISO/IEC 27001 certificate and Statement of Applicability listed in the Trust Center.
Sources (2) →

GDPR / data residency

Elastic Cloud
Operates in compliance with GDPR principles; customers can request a Data Processing Addendum through a support case.
Grafana Cloud
GDPR, EU-US DPF and UK/Swiss extensions listed in the Trust Center with a DPA; residency comes from choosing one of the published regions at stack creation.
Sources (2) →

PCI DSS

Elastic Cloud
PCI DSS listed among the certifications in the Elastic Trust Center, alongside SOC 2, ISO 27001 and FedRAMP.
Grafana Cloud
PCI DSS v4.0.1 listed among Trust Center compliance documents.
Sources (2) →

Encryption at rest

Elastic Cloud
Cluster data is encrypted at rest by default; TLS between Elasticsearch nodes and from the internet.
Grafana Cloud
AES-256 for storage and HTTPS/TLS in transit; Grafana Cloud manages the keys with industry-standard key management systems.
Sources (2) →

Customer-managed keys

Elastic 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.
Grafana Cloud
Keys are managed by Grafana Cloud with industry-standard key management systems. — Read from the Grafana Assistant security page, which describes how Grafana Cloud stores customer data.
Sources (2) →

Role-based access control

Elastic Cloud
Predefined cloud resource roles (Admin, Editor, Viewer, billing admin) for Hosted and Serverless; custom roles can be created on Serverless projects.
Grafana Cloud
Grafana Cloud administrative controls and role-based access control (RBAC).
Sources (2) →

Private networking / VPC

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.
Grafana Cloud
AWS PrivateLink, Azure Private Link and GCP Private Service Connect are documented connectivity options for Grafana Cloud.
Sources (2) →

Dedicated infrastructure

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.
Grafana Cloud
Bring Your Own Cloud deploys the managed stack into a dedicated cloud account in your AWS or GCP (Azure case-by-case) rather than a Grafana Labs-owned account.
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 includesGrafana Cloud: 50 GB ingested a month with 14-day retention and community support, described as always free.
Uptime SLAElastic 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.
Events includedGrafana Cloud: Free plan, per month: 10k active metrics series; 50 GB each of logs, traces and profiles; 50k frontend-observability sessions; 500 k6 virtual user hours; 100k API test executions. Grafana meters series, GB, sessions and host hours; no event-count meter is published.
Session replayGrafana Cloud: Limited — Public preview add-on to Frontend Observability, disabled by default and enabled per stack on request.
Query priceElastic Cloud: No separate query meter on Serverless Observability: billing is ingest plus retention only, with egress 50 GB free then $0.05 per GB.
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.
HIPAAElastic Cloud: HIPAA business associate agreements available on all Elastic Cloud subscription tiers on AWS, Azure and Google Cloud.
04.

Questions this comparison answers.

Entry paid plan: Elastic Cloud or Grafana Cloud?

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.

Grafana Cloud: $19/month platform fee for Pro, which includes 10,000 active series before usage billing starts.

Free tier: Elastic Cloud or Grafana Cloud?

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

Grafana Cloud: Yes

Should I choose Elastic Cloud or Grafana Cloud?

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.

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.

Provider pages

Elastic CloudManaged Elasticsearch, Kibana and Elastic Observability, hosted or serverless across AWS, Google Cloud and Azure.Grafana CloudHosted Grafana, Loki, Mimir and Tempo with a small platform fee, usage billing and unusually long metrics retention.

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Comments

Every page here is sourced and dated.