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GlitchTip vs Grafana Cloud

SEPT 2026 audit

A comparison of GlitchTip 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 24 criteria comparedSources last checked

The short answer

Choose GlitchTip if…

Anyone who wants Sentry-shaped error tracking without Sentry's bill — the SDKs are compatible, so switching is a DSN change, and self-hosting is free and genuinely supported.

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…

  • GlitchTip: It tracks errors and nothing else. No tracing, no replays, no uptime monitoring, so a team wanting one pane of glass will be assembling it from parts.
  • 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: GlitchTip alternatives · Grafana Cloud alternatives

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

Visit GlitchTip 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.

CriterionGlitchTipGrafana Cloud
Pricing
Free tierYesYes
Kind of free offerFree tierFree tier
What the free plan includes1,000 events a month, described by GlitchTip as free forever.50 GB ingested a month with 14-day retention and community support, described as always free.
Entry paid plan
$15/month for the 100,000 event plan; $50 for 500,000 and $250 for 3 million
$19/month platform fee for Pro, which includes 10,000 active series before usage billing starts.
Pricing modelFlat monthly tiers bought by event ceiling, with a free self-hosted build as the alternative to the hosted plans.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
Two fully separate hosted instances: US (DigitalOcean NYC1, New York, app.glitchtip.com) and EU (DigitalOcean FRA1, Frankfurt, eu.glitchtip.com); no replication between them.
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
Events included100,000 events a month on the cheapest paid plan; 1,000 on the free hosted plan. One meter, not several — GlitchTip counts events and nothing else.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.
Retention window90 days by default when self-hosted, set by GLITCHTIP_RETENTION_DAYS and configurable per data type — events, transactions, logs, uptime checks and files all inherit it, releases keep 365 days. Events move from Postgres to cold storage after 30 days but stay queryable. GlitchTip publishes no retention figure for its hosted plans.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
Support
Support on entry paid planSupport access on Small ($15/month), the entry paid plan; priority email and live chat from Medium; development support and prioritization on Large.Community support on Free; 8x5 email support on Pro, from $19/month plus usage. Enterprise starts at $25,000/year.
Compliance
SOC 2
No SOC 2 report claimed; the hosted architecture is described as adhering to principles found in HIPAA, SOC II and ISO 27001 frameworks.
SOC 2 report listed in the Grafana Labs Trust Center, available on request.
ISO 27001
No certification claimed; the hosted architecture is described as adhering to principles found in the ISO 27001 framework.
ISO/IEC 27001 certificate and Statement of Applicability listed in the Trust Center.
GDPR / data residencyFully independent EU instance in Frankfurt keeps events, accounts and email inside the EU; a DPA with EU SCCs and the UK addendum is published.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 DSS
Not certified itself; billing is handled by Stripe (PCI-DSS Service Provider Level 1), which never receives event data.
PCI DSS v4.0.1 listed among Trust Center compliance documents.
Encryption at restDigitalOcean Volumes Block Storage encryption at rest; TLS 1.2+ in transit.AES-256 for storage and HTTPS/TLS in transit; Grafana Cloud manages the keys with industry-standard key management systems.
Role-based access controlOrganization members hold one of four roles (member, admin, manager, owner) set via the members API, plus optional per-team roles. Linked as "API Documentation" from glitchtip.com/documentation.Grafana Cloud administrative controls and role-based access control (RBAC).
Private networking / VPC
Hosted database cluster sits in a private VPC unreachable from the public internet; no customer-facing private connectivity is described.
AWS PrivateLink, Azure Private Link and GCP Private Service Connect are documented connectivity options for Grafana Cloud.
Dedicated infrastructure
All hosted plans run on the same security-controlled infrastructure; the difference between Free, Small, Medium and Large is contractual.
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.

What the free plan includes

GlitchTip
1,000 events a month, described by GlitchTip as free forever.
Grafana Cloud
50 GB ingested a month with 14-day retention and community support, described as always free.
Sources (2) →

Entry paid plan

GlitchTip
$15/month for the 100,000 event plan; $50 for 500,000 and $250 for 3 million
Grafana Cloud
$19/month platform fee for Pro, which includes 10,000 active series before usage billing starts.
Sources (2) →
  • Pricing — GlitchTip ↗

    “Up to 100k events/mo [...] $15 / month [...] Up to 500k events/mo [...] $50 / month [...] Up to 3 million events/mo [...] $250 / month”

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

  • 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 · Report a correction

Pricing model

GlitchTip
Flat monthly tiers bought by event ceiling, with a free self-hosted build as the alternative to the hosted plans.
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) →
  • GlitchTip Pricing ↗

    “Self-hosted version Run on your own server Free for personal projects [...] up to 100k events/mo [...] support access $15 / month [...] up to 500k events/mo [...] up to 3 million events/mo”

    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

GlitchTip

Two fully separate hosted instances: US (DigitalOcean NYC1, New York, app.glitchtip.com) and EU (DigitalOcean FRA1, Frankfurt, eu.glitchtip.com); no replication between them.

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) →

Events included

GlitchTip
100,000 events a month on the cheapest paid plan; 1,000 on the free hosted plan. One meter, not several — GlitchTip counts events and nothing else.
Grafana 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.
Sources (2) →

Retention window

GlitchTip
90 days by default when self-hosted, set by GLITCHTIP_RETENTION_DAYS and configurable per data type — events, transactions, logs, uptime checks and files all inherit it, releases keep 365 days. Events move from Postgres to cold storage after 30 days but stay queryable. GlitchTip publishes no retention figure for its hosted plans.
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) →
  • Installation — GlitchTip documentation ↗

    “Data Retention [...] GlitchTip automatically cleans up old data based on configurable retention periods. [...] GLITCHTIP_RETENTION_DAYS 90 Master default for all retention periods [...] GLITCHTIP_EVENT_HOT_DAYS 30 Days to keep events in PostgreSQL before archival [...] GLITCHTIP_RELEASE_RETENTION_DAYS 365 Release retention”

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

  • 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 · Report a correction

Support on entry paid plan

GlitchTip
Support access on Small ($15/month), the entry paid plan; priority email and live chat from Medium; development support and prioritization on Large.
Grafana Cloud
Community support on Free; 8x5 email support on Pro, from $19/month plus usage. Enterprise starts at $25,000/year.
Sources (2) →
  • GlitchTip Pricing ↗

    “support access $15 / month [...] priority email & live chat support $50 / month [...] development support & prioritization”

    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

GlitchTip
No SOC 2 report claimed; the hosted architecture is described as adhering to principles found in HIPAA, SOC II and ISO 27001 frameworks.
Grafana Cloud
SOC 2 report listed in the Grafana Labs Trust Center, available on request.
Sources (2) →

ISO 27001

GlitchTip
No certification claimed; the hosted architecture is described as adhering to principles found in the ISO 27001 framework.
Grafana Cloud
ISO/IEC 27001 certificate and Statement of Applicability listed in the Trust Center.
Sources (2) →

GDPR / data residency

GlitchTip
Fully independent EU instance in Frankfurt keeps events, accounts and email inside the EU; a DPA with EU SCCs and the UK addendum is published.
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

GlitchTip
Not certified itself; billing is handled by Stripe (PCI-DSS Service Provider Level 1), which never receives event data.
Grafana Cloud
PCI DSS v4.0.1 listed among Trust Center compliance documents.
Sources (2) →

Encryption at rest

GlitchTip
DigitalOcean Volumes Block Storage encryption at rest; TLS 1.2+ in transit.
Grafana Cloud
AES-256 for storage and HTTPS/TLS in transit; Grafana Cloud manages the keys with industry-standard key management systems.
Sources (2) →

Role-based access control

GlitchTip
Organization members hold one of four roles (member, admin, manager, owner) set via the members API, plus optional per-team roles. Linked as "API Documentation" from glitchtip.com/documentation.
Grafana Cloud
Grafana Cloud administrative controls and role-based access control (RBAC).
Sources (2) →
  • GlitchTip API (OpenAPI schema) ↗

    “"description": "Update member role within organization" [...] "orgRole": {"enum": ["member", "admin", "manager", "owner"], "title": "Orgrole", "type": "string"}”

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

  • Trust Center ↗

    “Customers can manage access using Grafana Cloud administrative controls and role-based access control (RBAC).”

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

Private networking / VPC

GlitchTip
Hosted database cluster sits in a private VPC unreachable from the public internet; no customer-facing private connectivity is described.
Grafana Cloud
AWS PrivateLink, Azure Private Link and GCP Private Service Connect are documented connectivity options for Grafana Cloud.
Sources (2) →

Dedicated infrastructure

GlitchTip
All hosted plans run on the same security-controlled infrastructure; the difference between Free, Small, Medium and Large is contractual.
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.

Credit card to startGrafana Cloud: No
When the free offer endsGlitchTip: Never — free forever, up to 1,000 events a month.
Session replayGrafana Cloud: Limited — Public preview add-on to Frontend Observability, disabled by default and enabled per stack on request.
Ingest price per GBGrafana 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.
HIPAAGlitchTip: BAA available on the Large plan ($250/month) for the US instance only; the EU instance is not covered.
Customer-managed keysGrafana 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.
04.

Questions this comparison answers.

Entry paid plan: GlitchTip or Grafana Cloud?

GlitchTip: $15/month for the 100,000 event plan; $50 for 500,000 and $250 for 3 million

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

Should I choose GlitchTip or Grafana Cloud?

Pick GlitchTip if Anyone who wants Sentry-shaped error tracking without Sentry's bill — the SDKs are compatible, so switching is a DSN change, and self-hosting is free and genuinely supported.

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

GlitchTipOpen-source error tracking compatible with Sentry SDKs, offered as a hosted plan priced per event or run yourself for free.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.