Uptrace wins on cost predictability and EU compliance; SigNoz leads in open-source community, AI observability, and query flexibility.
| Feature | Uptrace | SigNoz |
|---|---|---|
| Deployment Model | — | — |
| Pricing | Community edition: free, self-hosted, unlimited data. Cloud: starts at $30/month for 50GB spans + 10GB logs. Pay-as-you-go: $2/GB spans, $1/GB logs, $1/GB metrics. Annual plans available with discounts. | SigNoz Community Edition is free and open source (Apache 2.0) for self-hosting. SigNoz Cloud has a free Teams tier with 10 GB data/month. Paid Cloud plans start at $0.30 per GB of logs and metrics ingested with usage-based billing. Enterprise plans have custom pricing with dedicated support, SSO, and extended retention. |
| Data Storage | — | — |
| Query Language | — | — |
| License | — | — |
| Feature | Uptrace | SigNoz |
|---|---|---|
| Core Observability | ||
| Distributed Tracing | Full APM with service graphs and RED metrics | Full APM with distributed tracing across services |
| Log Management | Unified ingestion with pattern detection | Scalable ingestion, search, and analysis at any scale |
| Metrics & Dashboards | Metrics with active timeseries billing | Custom metrics with configurable dashboards |
| Alerting | Built-in alerting system | Multi-channel alerts to preferred notification channels |
| Error Tracking | Top errors and frequent log patterns | Dedicated exceptions module based on OTel trace data |
| OpenTelemetry & Integrations | ||
| OpenTelemetry Support | Native with OTel Arrow protocol (15-30x compression) | Native with semantic conventions and first-class documentation |
| Data Ingestion Sources | OTel, Prometheus, Vector, FluentBit, CloudWatch | 50+ ingestion sources |
| Language SDKs | 12 languages including Go, Python, Java, Rust, Swift | All major languages via OpenTelemetry SDKs |
| Query Options | Standard query interface | Query builder, PromQL, and raw ClickHouse SQL |
| AI & Advanced Features | ||
| LLM/AI Observability | ❌ | Dedicated LLM call tracking and AI performance monitoring |
| Natural Language Queries | ❌ | Plain English dashboard creation |
| Agent-Native Debugging | ❌ | MCP integration with Claude Code and Cursor |
| Deployment & Compliance | ||
| Self-Hosted Option | Free Community Edition with unlimited data | Free Apache 2.0 edition with no restrictions |
| Cloud Regions | EU only (Germany and Finland) | US, EU, and India regions |
| SSO/SAML | Single Sign-On included | Enterprise tier with SSO and SAML |
| Data Compression | 15-30x with OTel Arrow protocol | Standard ClickHouse compression |
| Spending Controls | Guaranteed monthly spending cap | Usage-based with no cap mechanism |
Distributed Tracing
Log Management
Metrics & Dashboards
Alerting
Error Tracking
OpenTelemetry Support
Data Ingestion Sources
Language SDKs
Query Options
LLM/AI Observability
Natural Language Queries
Agent-Native Debugging
Self-Hosted Option
Cloud Regions
SSO/SAML
Data Compression
Spending Controls
Yes, both platforms are OpenTelemetry-native, so migration involves switching your telemetry export endpoint and replacing vendor-specific agents with OpenTelemetry SDKs. Both report 90%+ cost savings compared to Datadog.
Both use ClickHouse for efficient columnar storage. Uptrace bills by GB and active timeseries. SigNoz charges $0.1 per million metric samples regardless of cardinality, making it more predictable for high-cardinality workloads.
Both offer Docker and Kubernetes deployments. SigNoz has a larger community (25,000+ GitHub stars) with more community resources. Uptrace emphasizes simplicity with a smaller operational footprint.
Uptrace offers on-premise installations for compliance needs. SigNoz provides managed self-hosted offerings where their team handles operations on your infrastructure.
Both excel at microservice observability. Uptrace provides service graphs with RED metrics. SigNoz offers distributed tracing with correlated signals and end-to-end debugging connected to Git, Jira, and Kubernetes.