I tracked the free tiers of 73 observability tools. Here's what changed this year

Basileion — Mon, 26 Oct 2026 15:16:44 +0000

Picking a monitoring/logging/APM tool usually means opening 10 pricing pages that each count "free" differently: hosts, GB ingested, spans, users, retention days.

So I built O11y Watch (https://o11y-watch.pages.dev). It tracks the free tier and pricing changes for 73 tools across APM, logs, uptime, error tracking, incident management and LLM observability, and every number links to the vendor's own page.

What I learned building it:

"Free" units don't compare. Normalize everything to what a 5-person team with ~50 GB/mo of logs actually pays.
Retention is the hidden limit. Many generous-looking free tiers keep data for only a few days.
Pricing pages change quietly. That's why there's a change log (https://o11y-watch.pages.dev) and a weekly newsletter.

Three real changes from the change log:

UptimeRobot (Oct 24, 2026): paid prices rose ~18%. Team went $39→$46/mo (monthly) and Scale $83→$98/mo (monthly); the free plan was unchanged in our snapshot. Source: https://uptimerobot.com/pricing/
Lunary (Oct 24, 2026): free tier removed for new users. The pricing page now says "Payment is required to activate your workspace", and cloud starts at $20/user/mo. Existing Free workspaces stay as they are. Source: https://lunary.ai/pricing
Logz.io (logged Oct 16, 2026): the pricing page announces "New Metrics pricing starts Oct. 1, 2026 for new consumption plans only. Existing plans keep their current rate." Source: https://logz.io/pricing/

The data is free to browse. Pro ($6/mo or $60/yr) adds change alerts for the tools you choose: https://o11y-watch.kit.com/products/o-11-y-watch-pro

What tool's pricing has surprised you? I'll add it.

DEV Community: Basileion

I tracked the free tiers of 73 observability tools. Here's what changed this year