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SigNoz vs Grafana Cloud

SEPT 2026 audit

A comparison of SigNoz 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 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

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…

  • SigNoz: $0.30 per GB is six times OpenObserve's rate, so a high-volume log pipeline pays a large premium for the packaging.
  • 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: SigNoz alternatives · Grafana Cloud alternatives

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

Visit SigNoz 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.

CriterionSigNozGrafana Cloud
Pricing
Free tier
No
Yes
Kind of free offerFree trialFree tier
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 modelPer 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.
Infrastructure
RegionsUS, EU and India data centres for SigNoz Cloud; Enterprise Cloud lets you pick the region.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 includedNo events meter: SigNoz Cloud bills traces and logs per GB and metrics per million samples. The $49/month Teams minimum includes $49 of usage — e.g. 163 GB of logs or traces, or 490 mn metric samples.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 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.
Session replay
Not supported — SigNoz's own table of capabilities it does not offer today marks Session Replays No for SigNoz Cloud.
Limited — Public preview add-on to Frontend Observability, disabled by default and enabled per stack on request.
Self-hostableSupportedSupported
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.
Support
Support on entry paid planIn-product chat, email and Slack on the usage-based cloud plan. Enterprise, from $4,000/month, adds data residency and compliance.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 compliant on SigNoz Cloud.SOC 2 report listed in the Grafana Labs Trust Center, available on request.
GDPR / data residencyData residency via US, EU and India regions so data need not leave its region; Enterprise Cloud selects the region.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.
Encryption at restEncrypted at rest and in transit on the Enterprise offering.AES-256 for storage and HTTPS/TLS in transit; Grafana Cloud manages the keys with industry-standard key management systems.
Role-based access controlRole-based access control included; fine-grained RBAC is listed as beta on the pricing comparison.Grafana Cloud administrative controls and role-based access control (RBAC).
Private networking / VPC
BYOC / Enterprise Self-Hosted runs the SigNoz stack inside your own AWS/GCP/Azure account, so your data never leaves your VPC. From the deployment-options section: Enterprise Self-Hosted / BYOC, alongside a fully managed Enterprise Cloud.
AWS PrivateLink, Azure Private Link and GCP Private Service Connect are documented connectivity options for Grafana Cloud.
Dedicated infrastructureEnterprise offers SigNoz Cloud: Dedicated, Enterprise Self-Hosted, and a bring-your-own-cloud option run by SigNoz in your account.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

SigNoz
No
Grafana Cloud
Yes
Sources (2) →

Kind of free offer

SigNoz
Free trial
Grafana Cloud
Free tier
Sources (2) →

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

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.
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) →
  • 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 · 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

SigNoz
US, EU and India data centres for SigNoz Cloud; Enterprise Cloud lets you pick the region.
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

SigNoz
No events meter: SigNoz Cloud bills traces and logs per GB and metrics per million samples. The $49/month Teams minimum includes $49 of usage — e.g. 163 GB of logs or traces, or 490 mn metric samples.
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) →
  • SigNoz | Pricing ↗

    “After the included $49 of usage, SigNoz Cloud bills: Traces $0.30 /GB Logs $0.30 /GB Metrics $0.10 /mn samples [...] $49 of usage (for example, 163 GB of logs or traces, or 490 mn metric samples)”

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

  • Pricing | Grafana Labs ↗

    “Limited to 10k active series per month [...] Limited to 50 GB ingested per month [...] Limited to 50k sessions per month”

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

Retention window

SigNoz

15 days by default for logs and traces, selectable up to 30, 90, 180 days or 1 year at higher rates.

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) →
  • 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 · 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

Session replay

SigNoz
Not supported — SigNoz's own table of capabilities it does not offer today marks Session Replays No for SigNoz Cloud.
Grafana Cloud
Limited — Public preview add-on to Frontend Observability, disabled by default and enabled per stack on request.
Sources (2) →

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.
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

SigNoz
In-product chat, email and Slack on the usage-based cloud plan. Enterprise, from $4,000/month, adds data residency and compliance.
Grafana Cloud
Community support on Free; 8x5 email support on Pro, from $19/month plus usage. Enterprise starts at $25,000/year.
Sources (2) →
  • SigNoz Pricing ↗

    “add unlimited teammates and monitor any number of hosts support via in-product chat, email, and slack soc2 type ii & hipaa compliant [...] for larger orgs that need data residency, compliance and support. custom starts at $4000/month”

    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

SigNoz
SOC 2 Type 2 compliant on SigNoz Cloud.
Grafana Cloud
SOC 2 report listed in the Grafana Labs Trust Center, available on request.
Sources (2) →

GDPR / data residency

SigNoz
Data residency via US, EU and India regions so data need not leave its region; Enterprise Cloud selects the region.
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) →

Encryption at rest

SigNoz
Encrypted at rest and in transit on the Enterprise offering.
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

SigNoz
Role-based access control included; fine-grained RBAC is listed as beta on the pricing comparison.
Grafana Cloud
Grafana Cloud administrative controls and role-based access control (RBAC).
Sources (2) →

Private networking / VPC

SigNoz
BYOC / Enterprise Self-Hosted runs the SigNoz stack inside your own AWS/GCP/Azure account, so your data never leaves your VPC. From the deployment-options section: Enterprise Self-Hosted / BYOC, alongside a fully managed Enterprise Cloud.
Grafana Cloud
AWS PrivateLink, Azure Private Link and GCP Private Service Connect are documented connectivity options for Grafana Cloud.
Sources (2) →

Dedicated infrastructure

SigNoz
Enterprise offers SigNoz Cloud: Dedicated, Enterprise Self-Hosted, and a bring-your-own-cloud option run by SigNoz in your account.
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.
Credit card to startGrafana Cloud: No
Query priceSigNoz: No charge for querying on SigNoz Cloud: query compute is included in the $0.30/GB ingestion price, with no dashboard or API charges.
ISO 27001Grafana Cloud: ISO/IEC 27001 certificate and Statement of Applicability listed in the Trust Center.
HIPAASigNoz: HIPAA compliant, with a BAA available as an add-on for eligible SigNoz Cloud contracts.
PCI DSSGrafana Cloud: PCI DSS v4.0.1 listed among Trust Center compliance documents.
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: 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.

Provider pages

SigNozOpen-source observability for logs, metrics and traces, billed per GB ingested with retention chosen per signal.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.