Independent · sourced · Updated June 2026
Best Observability Apm (2026)
The cheapest observability apm is AppSignal at $0/mo. 6 offer a free tier (AppSignal, Grafana Cloud, Honeycomb). This page compares 9 options on entry price, free tier, HIPAA/SOC 2 and best-for — every figure linked to its source, updated June 2026.
9 options compared on price, free tier, compliance and fit — ranked cheapest-first. Every figure links to the vendor's own page and the date we captured it; quote-only tiers show “—”, never a guess.
Key takeaways
- Cheapest: AppSignal at $0/mo (Free).
- Typical paid price: from $1.40/mo, median $24.50/mo, up to $130/mo — across 8 with published pricing.
- Free tier: AppSignal, Grafana Cloud, Honeycomb, New Relic, Sentry, SigNoz.
- HIPAA-ready: AppSignal, New Relic, Sentry, SigNoz, Dynatrace, Datadog APM, Elastic Observability.
- Tracked: 9 vendors, data current through 2026-06-15.
Comparison
| # | Observability Apm | Entry price | Free | HIPAA | SOC 2 | Best for | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | AppSignal | $0/mo Free | Yes | Yes | — | Ruby on Rails and Elixir/Phoenix teams wanting first-class language support | getapp.com |
| 2 | Grafana Cloud | $0/mo Free | Yes | — | Yes | Prometheus-native and OpenTelemetry shops wanting hosted Grafana | grafana.com |
| 3 | Honeycomb | $0/mo Free | Yes | — | — | Engineering teams practicing observability-driven development | honeycomb.io |
| 4 | New Relic | $0/mo Free | Yes | Yes | Yes | Teams wanting a generous free tier before committing | newrelic.com |
| 5 | Sentry | $0/mo Developer | Yes | Yes | Yes | Developer-led teams wanting free error monitoring before paying for APM | sentry.io |
| 6 | SigNoz | $0/mo Community (Self-Hosted) | Yes | Yes | Yes | OpenTelemetry-first teams wanting a fully OTel-native managed backend | signoz.io |
| 7 | Dynatrace | $1.4/mo Kubernetes Platform Monitoring | No | Yes | Yes | Large enterprises needing zero-config auto-instrumentation at scale | dynatrace.com |
| 8 | Datadog APM | $31/mo APM (with Infra) | No | Yes | Yes | Enterprises running multi-cloud, multi-language stacks | datadoghq.com |
| 9 | Elastic Observability | — | No | Yes | Yes | Organizations already using Elasticsearch or Elastic SIEM wanting unified observability | quote-only |
Prices are the lowest published self-serve monthly rate as captured on the linked source. Annual-billing and usage details are on each vendor's record in our open dataset.
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Frequently asked questions
What is the cheapest observability apm?
AppSignal has the lowest published entry price at $0/mo (Free), as of 2026-06-15.
How much does observability apm cost per month?
Across the 8 observability apm with published paid pricing, the median starting price is $24.50/mo, ranging from $1.40/mo to $130/mo, as of 2026-06-15. 6 also offer a free tier. 1 are quote-only.
Which observability apm have a free plan?
AppSignal, Grafana Cloud, Honeycomb, New Relic, Sentry, SigNoz offer a free tier.
Which observability apm support HIPAA?
AppSignal, New Relic, Sentry, SigNoz, Dynatrace, Datadog APM, Elastic Observability state HIPAA support (a BAA). Always confirm current scope with the vendor.
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How we compiled this
Pricing fetched directly from each vendor's official pricing page using WebFetch on 2026-06-14. All USD figures reflect self-serve published rates. 'monthlyUsd' for annual plans is the annualized monthly rate (annual total divided by 12); month-to-month rates are noted where published. Stackify Retrace was excluded because it is in end-of-life maintenance mode (EOL March 31, 2027) with no meaningful new-customer pricing. AppSignal pricing was sourced from GetApp (reputable aggregator) because the official /plans page returned HTTP 500; noted in provenance. New Relic HIPAA eligibility requires the Data Plus add-on per official documentation. Dynatrace uses a fully consumption-based DPS model; the 'Full-Stack Monitoring' tier ($58/mo per 8-GiB host) is the primary APM entry point. Grafana Cloud has a $19/month platform fee on the Pro tier on top of usage costs; the flat $19 is used as monthlyUsd for the Pro plan. SigNoz Teams plan includes $49 of usage credits per month. minutesIncluded, callsIncluded, overagePerMin, and overagePerCall are null on all plans as this is a non-telephony vertical.
Last verified 2026-06-15. We re-check published prices and compliance on a recurring cadence and update this page when they change.
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