Pricing Overview
Uptrace follows a freemium pricing model that separates self-hosted and cloud offerings. The self-hosted Community edition is completely free with no data limits, making it accessible to teams willing to manage their own infrastructure. Uptrace Cloud starts at $30 per month, which includes 50GB of span storage and 10GB of log ingestion. Beyond the included allowances, pay-as-you-go rates apply: $2 per GB for spans, $1 per GB for logs, and $1 per GB for metrics. There are no per-seat fees at any tier, meaning unlimited users can access the platform without additional cost. Annual billing discounts are available, and Uptrace offers a free first month on Cloud plans. A monthly spending cap feature guarantees predictable bills with no surprise overages. The free trial includes 1TB of storage and 100,000 timeseries, giving teams a substantial runway to evaluate the platform before committing to a paid plan.
Plan Comparison
| Feature | Community (Self-Hosted) | Cloud Starter | Cloud Pay-as-You-Go |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly Price | $0 | $30/month | Usage-based |
| Spans Storage | Unlimited | 50GB included | $2/GB |
| Logs Ingestion | Unlimited | 10GB included | $1/GB |
| Metrics | Unlimited | 100,000 timeseries | $1/GB |
| Users | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Data Retention | Self-managed | Managed | Managed |
| Infrastructure | Self-managed | EU-based (Germany & Finland) | EU-based (Germany & Finland) |
| Support | Community | 16/5 support | 16/5 support |
| SSO | Included | Included | Included |
| Uptime SLA | N/A | 99.9% | 99.9% |
| Deployment | Docker, Kubernetes, Ansible | Fully managed | Fully managed |
The Cloud Starter plan suits teams that want a turnkey solution with predictable costs. The pay-as-you-go model works for organizations with variable telemetry volumes that prefer paying only for what they ingest. Volume discounts apply automatically as usage scales, and annual plans reduce costs further. The self-hosted Community edition removes all data caps entirely, trading operational responsibility for zero licensing fees. All cloud plans include APM tracing, metrics dashboards, error tracking, log management, alerting, and single sign-on at no extra charge.
Hidden Costs and Considerations
While Uptrace advertises straightforward pricing, teams should account for cloud egress fees when sending telemetry data from AWS or GCP to Uptrace's EU-based servers. Uptrace mitigates this with the OTel Arrow protocol, achieving 15-30x compression on raw telemetry data, which substantially reduces outbound transfer costs. Self-hosted deployments require provisioning ClickHouse storage and compute, which carries its own infrastructure cost that scales with data volume. Data retention policies on Cloud plans depend on the tier, so teams needing long-term retention should confirm storage duration before committing. Organizations outside the EU should factor in network latency: 90-150ms from the US, 120-170ms from India, and 130-170ms from Singapore.
Cost Estimates by Team Size
| Team Size | Estimated Monthly Spans | Estimated Monthly Logs | Monthly Cost (Cloud) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solo developer | ~10GB | ~5GB | $30 (within Starter allowance) |
| Small team (5 engineers) | ~80GB | ~20GB | $30 + (30GB x $2) + (10GB x $1) = $100 |
| Mid-size team (20 engineers) | ~300GB | ~80GB | $30 + (250GB x $2) + (70GB x $1) = $600 |
These estimates assume typical microservices workloads where each engineer's services generate roughly 15GB of spans and 4GB of logs per month. The solo developer stays comfortably within the Cloud Starter plan's 50GB spans and 10GB logs allowance, paying only the $30 base price. A small team of 5 engineers exceeds the included allowances modestly, with overage charges on spans and logs bringing the total to approximately $100 per month. A mid-size team of 20 engineers with heavier telemetry volumes would pay roughly $600 per month. All estimates exclude volume discounts, which would reduce costs further at higher tiers. Teams that self-host using the Community edition eliminate these charges entirely in exchange for managing their own ClickHouse and Uptrace infrastructure. For context, Uptrace's own published comparison shows a large team of 150 engineers paying $2,039 per month on Uptrace versus $24,635 on New Relic and $42,468 on Datadog.
How Uptrace Pricing Compares
| Platform | Starting Price | Pricing Model | Per-Seat Fees | Key Differentiator |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Uptrace | $0 (self-hosted) / $30/month (Cloud) | Freemium + Usage-based | None | OpenTelemetry-native, EU-hosted, ClickHouse backend |
| New Relic | $0 (free tier) / $19/month per host | Usage-based | Per-host pricing | Broad ecosystem, per-host costs scale with infrastructure |
| Elastic Observability | $95/month | Paid tiers | Tier-based | Part of the Elastic Stack, self-host or cloud options |
| Observe | $0.49/GB (logs) | Usage-based | Usage-based | Data lake approach, separate pricing per signal type |
Uptrace's pricing stands out for its simplicity and cost predictability. New Relic charges $19 per month per host, which compounds quickly for teams running dozens of services across multiple hosts. Elastic Observability starts at $95 per month for the Standard tier, with Platinum at $125 per month and Enterprise at $175 per month, none of which include per-GB ingestion costs that add up separately. Observe prices logs at $0.49 per GB, which is competitive on a per-unit basis but lacks Uptrace's bundled starter plan with included allowances. Uptrace's zero per-seat fee policy gives it a structural advantage for larger engineering teams where per-user or per-host licensing on competing platforms drives costs significantly higher. The self-hosted Community edition further differentiates Uptrace by offering a fully free option that competitors either do not provide or restrict with feature limitations.