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Alex Spinov
Alex Spinov

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SigNoz Has a Free APM Platform — Open-Source DataDog Alternative with OpenTelemetry

#monitoring #devops #observability #opensource

SigNoz is an open-source Application Performance Monitoring (APM) platform built on OpenTelemetry.

What You Get for Free

  • Distributed tracing — trace requests across microservices
  • Metrics — application and infrastructure metrics
  • Log management — centralized log collection and analysis
  • Dashboards — customizable dashboards with multiple chart types
  • Alerts — threshold and anomaly-based alerting
  • Service maps — visualize service dependencies
  • Error tracking — aggregate and track errors
  • OpenTelemetry native — no vendor SDK needed
  • ClickHouse backend — fast queries on large datasets
  • Self-hosted — free, unlimited data

Quick Start 

# Docker Compose
git clone -b main https://github.com/SigNoz/signoz.git
cd signoz/deploy
docker compose up -d

# Access at http://localhost:3301
# Instrument your app with OpenTelemetry SDK → data flows in
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Why Teams Choose It Over DataDog

DataDog charges per host ($15-23/host/mo) + per GB:

  • SigNoz is free — self-hosted, no per-host pricing
  • OpenTelemetry native — no vendor lock-in
  • Unified platform — traces, metrics, logs in one tool
  • ClickHouse — fast analytical queries on observability data

A startup with 20 microservices was quoted $3,600/mo by DataDog. They deployed SigNoz — same APM features, same dashboards, and OpenTelemetry means they can switch to any backend if needed. Monthly cost: $40 for hosting.

Need Custom Data Solutions?

I build production-grade scrapers and data pipelines for startups, agencies, and research teams.

Browse 88+ ready-made scrapers on Apify → — Reddit, HN, LinkedIn, Google, Amazon, and more.

Custom project? Email me: spinov001@gmail.com — fast turnaround, fair pricing.

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