Editorial take
Why it stands out
OpenObserve is strongest when framed as a unified observability platform with unusually legible economics, not just as another log search alternative.
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Tool profile
Open-source observability platform for logs, metrics, and traces with aggressive public usage pricing and a real self-hosted free tier.
Unified observability
OpenObserve is worth adding because it sits exactly at the intersection this directory should care about: real infrastructure software, builder-facing adoption, and a clear official pricing story. The official site positions it as an open-source observability platform for logs, metrics, and traces, with unusually explicit claims around performance and storage efficiency. Compared with many observability tools that hide the real economics, OpenObserve goes much further in showing how the platform is meant to be bought and deployed.
The pricing model is one of its strongest differentiators. The official pricing page shows a 14-day free trial for cloud and public usage-based examples including $0.50 per GB for ingestion, $0.01 per GB for queries, $0.20 per GB for pipeline processing, and $0.10 per GB per 30 days for additional retention. On the self-hosted side, the official enterprise license now spells out that usage up to 50 GB/day is free without registration and 50 to 200 GB/day is available under a free-tier key. That combination makes OpenObserve unusually credible for teams comparing open-source observability with a clear path from free self-hosting to cloud or paid self-hosted scale.
Quick fit
Editorial take
OpenObserve is strongest when framed as a unified observability platform with unusually legible economics, not just as another log search alternative.
What it does well
Primary use cases
Fit notes
Compare with
Pressure-test this pick against nearby alternatives.
Apache Kafka
Free planEvent streaming and event-driven architectures
Open-source distributed event streaming platform for high-throughput pipelines, pub/sub, and stream-processing ecosystems.
Choose Kafka when replayable event streams and ecosystem breadth matter more than the lightest possible operational footprint.
Pricing snapshot
OpenObserve's official pricing page shows a 14-day cloud free trial and usage-based pricing including $0.50/GB ingestion, $0.01/GB queries, $0.20/GB pipeline processing, and $0.10/GB per 30 days for extra retention. Self-hosted usage is free up to 50 GB/day without registration and up to 200 GB/day with a free-tier key according to the official enterprise license.
Arcjet
Free planApplication runtime security
Runtime security toolkit for modern applications and AI systems that helps teams enforce quotas, block bots, prevent prompt abuse, and ship app-level protections in code.
Closer to application-runtime security and abuse-prevention tooling than to classic perimeter appliances.
