Free observability and monitoring tools
Monitoring free plans are generous, but each one caps something different: data ingested, events, monitors or users. Below are free plans for full-stack observability, error tracking and uptime checks. Every limit comes from the vendor's own pricing page.
13 listings · facts checked on official pages, latest 2026-11-01. Plans change; confirm on the vendor's site.
| Plan | Main free allowance | Users or seats |
|---|---|---|
| New Relic | 100 GB data ingest a month | 1 full platform user, unlimited basic users |
| Grafana Cloud | 50 GB logs and 50 GB traces a month, 10k metric series | 3 active users |
| Axiom | 500 GB a month data loading compute, 25 GB storage | Not stated |
| Honeycomb | Up to 20M events and 100M metrics data points a month | Not stated |
| Pydantic Logfire | 10M telemetry records a month | 1 seat + 2 read-only guests |
| Better Stack | 10 monitors, 3 GB logs, 100,000 exceptions a month | Not stated |
| Sentry | 5k errors a month | Not stated |
| Honeybadger | 5,000 errors a month | 1 user |
| Rollbar | 5,000 occurrences a month | Not stated |
| UptimeRobot | 50 monitors at 5-minute intervals | Not stated |
| Checkly | 10 uptime monitors, 10,000 API check runs a month | Not stated |
| Cronitor | 5 monitors | 1 dashboard user |
| Healthchecks.io | 20 monitored jobs | Not stated |
Checked on the official pricing pages, 2026-10-31
New Relic Free: "Sign up for free access with our perpetual free tier and 100 GB/month of data ingest included." One free full platform user, unlimited basic users, no credit card required; $0.40/GB beyond the free 100 GB. Source: newrelic.com/pricing, checked 2026-10-31.
Honeycomb Free: "Best for testing and individual projects": event volume up to 20M per month and metrics data points up to 100M per month. Pro starts at $150 a month. Source: www.honeycomb.io/pricing, checked 2026-10-31.
01New RelicDev Tools
From the official page · checked Oct 31, 2026
Pick this if: You want APM, logs and infrastructure in one place and 100 GB of data a month, with one full user.
02Grafana CloudDev Tools
From the official page · checked Oct 31, 2026
Pick this if: You want hosted Grafana with metrics, logs and traces for a team of up to 3.
03AxiomDev Tools
From the official page · checked Nov 1, 2026
Pick this if: You send a lot of logs and events and want 30-day retention.
04HoneycombDev Tools
From the official page · checked Oct 31, 2026
Pick this if: You debug with distributed tracing and stay under 20 million events a month.
05Pydantic LogfireDev Tools
From the official page · checked Oct 30, 2026
Pick this if: You build Python or AI apps and want OpenTelemetry tracing with a hard cap, so no surprise bills.
06Better StackDev Tools
From the official page · checked Oct 31, 2026
Pick this if: You want uptime monitors, a status page and error tracking from one free account.
07SentryDev Tools
From the official page · checked Nov 1, 2026
Pick this if: You mainly need error tracking and 5,000 errors a month is enough.
08HoneybadgerDev Tools
From the official page · checked Oct 30, 2026
Pick this if: You are a solo developer who wants errors, logs and an uptime check together.
09RollbarDev Tools
From the official page · checked Oct 30, 2026
Pick this if: You want error tracking with session replays (1,000 a month).
10UptimeRobotDev Tools
From the official page · checked Nov 1, 2026
Pick this if: You only need uptime checks and want many monitors (50).
11ChecklyDev Tools
From the official page · checked Nov 1, 2026
Pick this if: You want API and Playwright browser checks, not just pings.
12CronitorDev Tools
From the official page · checked Oct 30, 2026
Pick this if: You monitor a few cron jobs and websites with email or Slack alerts.
13Healthchecks.ioDev Tools
From the official page · checked Oct 28, 2026
Pick this if: You want simple cron job monitoring for up to 20 jobs.
Questions
What is the best free observability tool?
It depends on what you hit first. New Relic gives 100 GB of data ingest a month but only 1 full user; Grafana Cloud allows 3 active users with 50 GB of logs and 50 GB of traces; Honeycomb allows up to 20M events a month (pricing pages checked 2026-10-31 for New Relic and Honeycomb).
Is New Relic free?
Yes. New Relic has a perpetual free tier with 100 GB of data ingest a month, one free full platform user and unlimited basic users, and no credit card is required.
Which free tool is best just for uptime monitoring?
UptimeRobot allows 50 monitors at 5-minute intervals. Checkly adds API and browser checks, and Better Stack includes 10 monitors plus a status page.
Do these free plans need a credit card?
New Relic, Grafana Cloud, Axiom, Pydantic Logfire, UptimeRobot and Checkly state on their pricing pages that no card is needed. The others do not say either way.