# SigNoz vs Grafana Cloud

Canonical: https://inetgeek.com/compare/signoz-vs-grafana-cloud/

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

## At a glance

| Criterion | SigNoz | Grafana Cloud |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Free tier | No | Yes |
| Entry paid plan | $49/month for Teams, and the $49 is usage credit rather than a fee on top — SigNoz bills against it before charging more. | $19/month platform fee for Pro, which includes 10,000 active series before usage billing starts. |
| Pricing model | 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. | 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. |
| Retention window | 15 days by default for logs and traces, selectable up to 30, 90, 180 days or 1 year at higher rates. | 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-hostable | Supported | Supported |
| Ingest price per GB | $0.30 per GB ingested for logs, and the same for traces. Retention is chosen per signal and priced with it. | From $0.050 per GB processed, falling to $0.046 above 10,000 GB and $0.044 above 25,000 with automatic volume discounts. |

## Where they differ

### Free tier

- SigNoz: No ([source](https://signoz.io/pricing/))
- Grafana Cloud: Yes ([source](https://grafana.com/pricing/))

### Entry paid plan

- SigNoz: $49/month for Teams, and the $49 is usage credit rather than a fee on top — SigNoz bills against it before charging more. ([source](https://signoz.io/pricing/))
- Grafana Cloud: $19/month platform fee for Pro, which includes 10,000 active series before usage billing starts. ([source](https://grafana.com/pricing/))

### Pricing model

- 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. ([source](https://signoz.io/pricing/))
- 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. ([source](https://grafana.com/pricing/))

### Retention window

- SigNoz: 15 days by default for logs and traces, selectable up to 30, 90, 180 days or 1 year at higher rates. ([source](https://signoz.io/pricing/))
- 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. ([source](https://grafana.com/pricing/))

### Ingest price per GB

- SigNoz: $0.30 per GB ingested for logs, and the same for traces. Retention is chosen per signal and priced with it. ([source](https://signoz.io/pricing/))
- 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. ([source](https://grafana.com/pricing/))

## Which should you choose?

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.

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.

Consider something else: SigNoz — $0.30 per GB is six times OpenObserve's rate, so a high-volume log pipeline pays a large premium for the packaging.

Consider something else: 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.

## Questions this comparison answers

**Entry paid plan: SigNoz or Grafana Cloud?**

SigNoz: $49/month for Teams, and the $49 is usage credit rather than a fee on top — SigNoz bills against it before charging more.
Grafana Cloud: $19/month platform fee for Pro, which includes 10,000 active series before usage billing starts.

**Free tier: SigNoz or Grafana Cloud?**

SigNoz: No
Grafana Cloud: Yes

**Should I choose SigNoz or Grafana Cloud?**

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.
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.