Updated November 2026

Best open-source observability tools

The best open-source observability tools: SigNoz, Grafana, OpenObserve, GlitchTip, Langfuse and Sentry. Licenses, self-hosting and cloud prices, checked on each official page.

The short answer · November 15, 2026

SigNoz is the best open-source observability platform for most teams in 2026: logs, metrics and traces in one OpenTelemetry-native app you can self-host for free. Grafana is the standard for dashboards across any data source, GlitchTip the lightest Sentry-compatible error tracker, and Langfuse the open-source pick for LLM apps.

Best all-in-one (logs, metrics, traces)SigNoz
Best dashboardsGrafana
Lowest storage costOpenObserve
Best lightweight error trackingGlitchTip
Best for LLM appsLangfuse
Best error tracking (source-available)Sentry

Comparison

checked 2026-11-15

Tool	Best for	Covers	Open source	Free plan	Paid from
SigNoz	Best all-in-one (logs, metrics, traces)	Logs · metrics · traces	MIT core (open-core)	Free self-hosted	$49/mo (Teams, cloud)
Grafana	Best dashboards	Dashboards · alerts (+ Loki, Tempo, Mimir)	AGPL-3.0	Cloud Free: 10k series, 50 GB logs	$19/mo + usage (Cloud Pro)
OpenObserve	Lowest storage cost	Logs · metrics · traces	AGPL-3.0	Free self-hosted	$0.50/GB ingested (cloud)
GlitchTip	Best lightweight error tracking	Errors · uptime	MIT	1,000 events/mo hosted	$15/mo (100k events)
Langfuse	Best for LLM apps	LLM traces · evals · prompts	MIT core (open-core)	50k units/mo (cloud)	$29/mo (Core)
Sentry	Best error tracking (source-available)	Errors · tracing · replays · logs	FSL (source-available)	1 user, 5k errors/mo	$26/mo yearly (Team)

1.SigNoz· Best all-in-one (logs, metrics, traces)

Open-source observability: traces, metrics and logs on OpenTelemetry

OpenTelemetry-native, on ClickHouse, with all three signals in one UI: the most direct open-source Datadog alternative.

SigNoz on DevHunt →Alternatives Official pricing

2.Grafana· Best dashboards

Open-source dashboards and observability

The standard for dashboards over any data source. A full self-hosted stack means also running Loki, Tempo and Mimir.

Grafana on DevHunt →Alternatives Official pricing

3.OpenObserve· Lowest storage cost

Open source observability built for petabyte scale

Written in Rust and stores data in object storage, which keeps log storage cheap at volume.

OpenObserve on DevHunt →Alternatives Official pricing

4.GlitchTip· Best lightweight error tracking

Open-source error tracking compatible with Sentry SDKs

Accepts the Sentry SDKs, so you can switch without changing code, and is far lighter to self-host than Sentry.

GlitchTip on DevHunt →Alternatives Official pricing

5.Langfuse· Best for LLM apps

Open Source Observability & Analytics for LLM Apps 🕵️‍♂️

Tracing, evaluations and prompt management for LLM apps and agents, free to self-host.

Langfuse on DevHunt →Alternatives Official pricing

6.Sentry· Best error tracking (source-available)

Error tracking and performance monitoring for developers

The best error tracker, but self-hosted Sentry is under the Functional Source License, not an OSI license, and is heavy to run.

Sentry on DevHunt →Alternatives Official pricing

How we picked

Every tool here is listed on DevHunt. We compared them on the points below and read each price, free plan and license on the tool's own pricing page and GitHub repository on November 15, 2026. Prices change: follow the official pricing link before you decide.

License: OSI open source, open-core or source-available
Logs, metrics, traces, errors or LLM traces
Self-hosting effort
Cloud free tier and price

Free alternatives to Datadog Free alternatives to Sentry All monitoring tools on DevHunt

FAQ

What is the best open-source observability tool?+

SigNoz, for logs, metrics and traces in one OpenTelemetry-native app. Grafana is the best for dashboards, GlitchTip for error tracking and Langfuse for LLM observability.

What is the best open-source alternative to Datadog?+

SigNoz is the closest single-product replacement. The Grafana stack (Grafana, Loki, Tempo, Mimir or Prometheus) covers the same ground with more pieces to run, and OpenObserve is cheaper to store logs in.

Is Sentry open source?+

Sentry’s code is public, but since 2023 it is under the Functional Source License (FSL-1.1-Apache-2.0), which becomes Apache-2.0 after two years. It is source-available, not OSI open source. GlitchTip is an MIT-licensed alternative that accepts Sentry SDKs.

Can I self-host these for free?+

Yes. SigNoz, Grafana, OpenObserve, GlitchTip and Langfuse can all be self-hosted for free; SigNoz and Langfuse keep some enterprise features in a separately licensed folder.