# OpenObserve vs Sentry

Canonical: https://inetgeek.com/compare/openobserve-vs-sentry/

Every value below is read from OpenObserve's and Sentry's own documentation. See https://inetgeek.com/methodology/ for how.

## At a glance

| Criterion | OpenObserve | Sentry |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Pricing model | Two meters and nothing else: $0.50 per GB ingested and $0.01 per GB queried, with retention included rather than sold as a tier. OpenObserve frames it as no hidden tiers and no surprise bills. | A plan fee plus five independent meters — errors, logs, application metrics, tracing spans and session replays — each with its own included amount and its own overage. Logs and metrics overflow at $0.50/GB; extra uptime alerts at $1.00 each. |
| Retention window | Included rather than priced: 15 months for metrics and 30 days for logs, traces, RUM and everything else, at no extra cost on pay-as-you-go. | 30-day lookback on Developer, the free plan. Up to 90 days on Team, and up to 90 days plus additional sampled retention on Business. Enterprise is custom. "Up to" is Sentry's own wording — the 90 days is a ceiling, not a guarantee. |
| Session replay | Supported | Supported |
| Self-hostable | Supported | Limited |

## Where they differ

### Pricing model

- OpenObserve: Two meters and nothing else: $0.50 per GB ingested and $0.01 per GB queried, with retention included rather than sold as a tier. OpenObserve frames it as no hidden tiers and no surprise bills. ([source](https://openobserve.ai/pricing))
- Sentry: A plan fee plus five independent meters — errors, logs, application metrics, tracing spans and session replays — each with its own included amount and its own overage. Logs and metrics overflow at $0.50/GB; extra uptime alerts at $1.00 each. ([source](https://sentry.io/pricing/))

### Retention window

- OpenObserve: Included rather than priced: 15 months for metrics and 30 days for logs, traces, RUM and everything else, at no extra cost on pay-as-you-go. ([source](https://openobserve.ai/pricing))
- Sentry: 30-day lookback on Developer, the free plan. Up to 90 days on Team, and up to 90 days plus additional sampled retention on Business. Enterprise is custom. "Up to" is Sentry's own wording — the 90 days is a ceiling, not a guarantee. ([source](https://sentry.io/pricing/))

### Self-hostable

- OpenObserve: Supported ([source](https://openobserve.ai/pricing))
- Sentry: Limited ([source](https://develop.sentry.dev/self-hosted/))

## Which should you choose?

Pick OpenObserve if Teams that want one bill they can predict — ingest, query, and retention included — with session replay and RUM in the same product rather than as separate purchases.

Pick Sentry if Teams that want tracing, logs, replays and uptime in one place and will pay per meter for it. The tooling is the deepest in the category and the SDK coverage is the widest.

Consider something else: OpenObserve — Ingest is $0.50 per GB against Grafana Cloud's $0.050, so the simplicity costs an order of magnitude at volume.

Consider something else: Sentry — Five meters bill independently, so 50,000 errors is not 50,000 units of observability. A team watching cost needs to watch spans and logs too, not just the error count.

## Documented by only one

- Free tier: Sentry: Yes
- Entry paid plan: Sentry: $26/month for Team, the cheapest paid plan
- When you exceed a cap: Sentry: Billed, not throttled: each meter charges for additional usage beyond the included amount, at a published per-unit rate.
- Events included: Sentry: 50,000 errors a month on Team and Business; 5,000 on Free. Errors are one meter of several — logs, spans, replays and uptime monitors are counted and billed separately.
- Ingest price per GB: OpenObserve: $0.50 per GB ingested, quoted with a 30% annual-commitment discount already applied.
- Query price: OpenObserve: $0.01 per GB queried, billed separately from ingest.
- SOC 2: Sentry: SOC 2 Type I and Type II certifications; report available via account or on request.
- ISO 27001: Sentry: ISO 27001 certified; certificate available via account or on request.
- HIPAA: Sentry: HIPAA attestation obtained.
- Encryption at rest: Sentry: All data encrypted at rest; keys managed via a redundant, globally distributed Key Management Service.
- Role-based access control: Sentry: Role-based access: Billing, Member, Admin, Manager, Organization Owner.

## Questions this comparison answers

**Should I choose OpenObserve or Sentry?**

Pick OpenObserve if Teams that want one bill they can predict — ingest, query, and retention included — with session replay and RUM in the same product rather than as separate purchases.
Pick Sentry if Teams that want tracing, logs, replays and uptime in one place and will pay per meter for it. The tooling is the deepest in the category and the SDK coverage is the widest.