How we make this list: we compare pricing pages, product documentation and public user reviews. Ratings come from G2, Capterra or Trustpilot, with the date we checked them.
Key takeaways
- Free tiers vary widely: New Relic includes 100 GB of ingest per month, Grafana Cloud 50 GB with 14-day retention, Better Stack 3 GB with 3-day retention and Papertrail 50 MB.
- Datadog charges $0.10 per GB to ingest and $1.70 per million log events to index for 15 days (billed annually), so the indexing decision drives most of the bill.
- Elastic's serverless Logs Essentials tier starts as low as $0.07 per GB ingested and $0.017 per GB per month retained, one of the lowest list prices in this guide.
- Graylog Open is free with no volume cap if you run it yourself, while Graylog Enterprise starts at $15,000 per year.
- Splunk and Sumo Logic do not publish dollar prices, so get a written quote based on your daily GB before committing.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Best for | Starting price | Free plan |
|---|
 Datadog Log Management | Teams already using Datadog for metrics and APM | $0.10 per GB ingested, plus $1.70 per million events indexed for 15 days (billed annually) | Free trial (14 days) |
 Grafana Cloud Logs | Cost-conscious teams comfortable with open source tooling | $19 per month Pro platform fee (includes 50 GB of logs) | Yes |
 New Relic | Small teams that want a large free ingest allowance | $0.40 per GB beyond the free 100 GB per month | Yes |
 Elastic Observability | Teams that need fast full-text search over large volumes | From $0.07 per GB ingested (Serverless Logs Essentials) | Free trial (14 days) |
 Splunk | Large enterprises with security and compliance needs | See website | Free trial |
 Sumo Logic | Teams wanting logs and SIEM on one platform | See website | Free trial |
 Better Stack | Startups wanting logs, uptime and incidents together | $0.15 per GB ingested plus $0.08 per GB per month retained (US region) | Yes |
 Coralogix | Teams that want to tier logs by importance to cut cost | $0.42 per GB (logs) | Free trial (14 days) |
 Graylog | Self-hosting teams and security-minded IT departments | $0 (Graylog Open); Enterprise from $15,000 per year | Yes |
 Papertrail | Small apps that need simple hosted log search | See website | Yes |
Is your product missing or out of date?
We review this list regularly. Vendors can request a listing, send updated pricing or ask about featured placement.
The best log monitoring software
Log monitoring software collects the text your servers, containers and applications write, makes it searchable and alerts you when something breaks. The hard part is not finding a tool that can do this. It is finding one whose pricing still makes sense when your log volume triples after a product launch.
Every price below comes from the vendor's own pricing page as checked in October 2026, with a note on what each number covers.
#1
Datadog Log Management
Best for: Teams already using Datadog for metrics and APM
Visit datadoghq.com
Starting price$0.10 per GB ingested, plus $1.70 per million events indexed for 15 days (billed annually)
Free planFree trial (14 days)
Datadog's main advantage is correlation. When an alert fires on a latency metric, engineers jump straight to the related logs and traces without switching tools, which makes logs an easy add-on for existing Datadog customers.
The pricing model separates ingestion from indexing. Ingest costs $0.10 per GB, and indexing for search costs $1.70 per million events per month with 15-day retention on annual billing. Logs you do not index can still be archived and rehydrated later, and Flex Storage keeps events for up to 15 months starting at $0.05 per million events per month.
The catch is predictability. Bills grow with event count, not just gigabytes, and teams that index everything by default often get a surprise. Set exclusion filters and index quotas on day one.
What we like- Logs sit beside metrics, traces and dashboards in one product
- Ingest everything and choose what to index
- Flex storage for long retention at low cost
Watch out for- Indexing costs add up fast at high event counts
- On-demand rates are higher than annual ones ($2.55 vs $1.70 per million events)
#2
Grafana Cloud Logs
Best for: Cost-conscious teams comfortable with open source tooling
Visit grafana.com
Starting price$19 per month Pro platform fee (includes 50 GB of logs)
Free planYes
Grafana Cloud's log service runs on Loki, the open source log database from Grafana Labs, and sits beside Grafana dashboards, metrics and traces. Loki indexes labels rather than every word in a log line, which is a large part of why it is cheaper to run than full-text search engines.
The free tier is generous for small teams: 50 GB of logs per month, 14-day retention and community support, with no credit card required. Pro costs $19 per month and includes the same 50 GB with 30-day retention and email support. Beyond that, logs are billed at $0.05 per GB processed, $0.40 per GB written and $0.10 per GB retained, with automatic volume discounts.
The trade-off is query style. Labels must be designed well, and ad hoc searches across unlabeled text are slower than in Elastic or Splunk.
What we like- Free tier includes 50 GB of logs a month with 14-day retention
- Built on open source Loki, so you can self-host later
- Low per-GB processing rates
Watch out for- Retention beyond 30 days needs Enterprise, which has a $25,000 per year minimum
- Label-based querying takes adjustment for teams used to full-text search
#3New Relic
Best for: Small teams that want a large free ingest allowance4.4/5 on
G2 (586 reviews, checked Oct 2026)
Visit newrelic.com
Starting price$0.40 per GB beyond the free 100 GB per month
Free planYes
New Relic's free tier is the largest in this guide. Every account gets 100 GB of data ingest per month, one full platform user and unlimited basic users, which covers logs for many small production apps without paying anything.
Beyond the free allowance, data costs $0.40 per GB on the original data option or $0.60 per GB with Data Plus, which adds features such as longer retention. Logs are part of the same platform as APM, infrastructure monitoring and alerting, so teams can link an error log to the transaction that caused it.
The cost to watch is people, not data. On the Standard edition, the first full platform user is $10 and each additional user is $99, up to 5 users. Pro full platform users cost $349 per user per month with an annual commitment. Decide who really needs full access.
What we like- 100 GB of free data ingest every month
- One free full platform user and unlimited basic users
- Logs, APM and infrastructure in one platform
Watch out for- Full platform users get expensive on Pro ($349 per user per month on annual commitment)
- Data Plus raises ingest to $0.60 per GB
#4
Elastic Observability
Best for: Teams that need fast full-text search over large volumes
Visit elastic.co
Starting priceFrom $0.07 per GB ingested (Serverless Logs Essentials)
Free planFree trial (14 days)
Elastic is the company behind Elasticsearch, and log search is where it shines. Engineers can run free-text queries across large volumes and get results quickly, which is valuable during incident investigations when nobody knows exactly what to search for.
The serverless Logs Essentials tier lists ingest as low as $0.07 per GB and retention as low as $0.017 per GB per month, with 50 GB of free egress. The Complete tier, which adds wider observability features, starts at $0.09 per GB ingested and $0.019 per GB per month retained. The free trial runs 14 days with no credit card.
The weakness is that "as low as" pricing depends on volume and configuration, so use Elastic's cost estimator before budgeting. Teams that choose to self-manage the Elastic Stack instead of the cloud service need staff who understand cluster sizing and upgrades.
What we like- Low list prices on the Logs Essentials tier
- Strong full-text search built on Elasticsearch
- Serverless option removes cluster management
Watch out for- Prices are listed as "as low as" figures, so real costs need the estimator
- Self-managed deployments require real Elasticsearch expertise
#5Splunk
Best for: Large enterprises with security and compliance needs4.0/5 on
G2 (1 reviews, checked Oct 2026)
Visit splunk.com
Starting priceSee website
Free planFree trial
Splunk is the long-standing enterprise choice for log analysis, especially where security teams and IT operations share the same data. Its search language is powerful, and many large organizations already have staff trained on it.
Splunk Cloud Platform offers ingest-based or workload-based pricing, and Splunk Enterprise offers data-ingest or workload pricing, but neither publishes a price, so you need a quote. On the observability side, Log Observer Connect is included in all Splunk Observability Cloud tiers, which start at $15 per host per month billed annually.
For a startup or mid-size engineering team, Splunk is usually more platform than needed. It fits best when compliance and security monitoring justify an enterprise contract.
What we like- Powerful search language and mature ecosystem
- Ingest or workload-based pricing options
- Strong overlap with security operations and SIEM
Watch out for- No published per-GB prices for Splunk Cloud Platform or Enterprise
- High total cost for small teams
#6Sumo Logic
Best for: Teams wanting logs and SIEM on one platform4.3/5 on
G2 (421 reviews, checked Oct 2026)
Visit sumologic.com
Starting priceSee website
Free planFree trial
Sumo Logic is a cloud-native log analytics platform that covers both DevOps troubleshooting and security monitoring. The Essentials plan includes unlimited users and log capacity, up to 365 days of log retention and 8x5 support, while Enterprise Suite adds cloud SIEM and 24/7 support.
Its pricing works on pooled credits that are consumed only when billing units are active, with no overage penalties for usage spikes. On Enterprise, the Flex model sets ingest at $0 and charges based on how much data you scan, which can suit teams that store a lot but query a little.
The catch is that the pricing page does not show dollar figures, so estimating cost requires a conversation with sales. Run a trial with real log volume and watch how fast credits are used.
What we like- Unlimited users and log capacity on Essentials
- Retention up to 365 days on Essentials
- Flex pricing on Enterprise charges $0 for ingest and bills on scans
Watch out for- Credit-based pricing is harder to estimate
- Dollar prices are not published
#7Better Stack
Best for: Startups wanting logs, uptime and incidents together4.8/5 on
G2 (344 reviews, checked Oct 2026)
Visit betterstack.com
Starting price$0.15 per GB ingested plus $0.08 per GB per month retained (US region)
Free planYes
Better Stack combines log management with uptime monitoring, status pages and incident response, which appeals to small teams that want one vendor instead of three.
Pricing is unusually transparent. In the US region, ingestion costs $0.15 per GB and retention $0.08 per GB per month, with lower rates in Europe. The free tier includes 3 GB of logs and 3 GB of traces per month with 3-day retention. Engineers who only need to view telemetry are free.
Treat the free tier as a trial, since three-day retention is too short for most production use. On-call scheduling also needs a responder license at $29 per month billed yearly or $34 monthly.
What we like- Free tier with 3 GB of logs a month
- Clear per-GB pricing by region
- Team members with telemetry-only access cost $0
Watch out for- Free tier keeps logs for only 3 days
- On-call and incident features need a $29 per month responder license (billed yearly)
#8
Coralogix
Best for: Teams that want to tier logs by importance to cut cost
Visit coralogix.com
Starting price$0.42 per GB (logs)
Free planFree trial (14 days)
Coralogix is built around the idea that not all logs deserve the same treatment. Debug logs you rarely search can go to a cheaper pipeline, while error logs you query daily go to Frequent Search. Done well, this keeps costs down without throwing data away.
The pricing page lists logs at $0.42 per GB, with examples of $1.15 per GB for Frequent Search and $0.50 per GB for Monitoring. Usage is measured in units, where one unit equals $1.50 of logs, metrics or traces. The trial lasts 14 days with a quota of 8 units and no credit card.
The weakness is complexity. A misrouted log can be hard to search when you need it, so plan the pipeline rules before migrating.
What we like- Pipelines let you route logs by value, with Monitoring at $0.50 per GB and Frequent Search at $1.15 per GB
- 14-day trial with no credit card
- Unit-based pricing across logs, metrics and traces
Watch out for- Unit and pipeline model takes time to understand
- The cheapest headline rate depends on routing most data to lower tiers
#9Graylog
Best for: Self-hosting teams and security-minded IT departments4.4/5 on
G2 (121 reviews, checked Oct 2026)
Visit graylog.org
Starting price$0 (Graylog Open); Enterprise from $15,000 per year
Free planYes
Graylog is a popular choice for IT teams that want to keep logs on their own servers. Graylog Open is source-available under the SSPL, free permanently and has no ingest cap, so the only costs are your hardware and staff time.
The paid editions add the features larger teams need. Graylog Enterprise starts at $15,000 per year from 10 GB per day and adds data tiering, a correlation engine, SSO and LDAP access control and audit logs. Graylog Security starts at $18,000 per year and adds detection rules, anomaly detection and case management. Graylog Cloud is available if you prefer a managed deployment.
The gap between the free and paid tiers is the main drawback. Small teams that outgrow Graylog Open face a large jump to Enterprise pricing, and running Open at scale means owning storage and upgrades yourself.
What we like- Graylog Open is free with no volume restrictions
- Can run fully on your own infrastructure
- Security edition adds SIEM features
Watch out for- Graylog Open has community support only and a narrower feature set
- Paid editions have a high starting price
Starting priceSee website
Free planYes
Papertrail, part of SolarWinds, is the tool many developers reach for when they simply want to tail and search logs from a few servers. Setup is quick, and saved searches can trigger alerts when a pattern appears.
The free plan includes 48 hours of search and a 7-day archive, with a 16 GB bonus in the first month and 50 MB per month after that. Paid usage is metered per GB, archives are copied to Amazon S3 as downloadable files, and all plans include unlimited systems and users, encrypted logging and a REST API.
The limitation is scope. Papertrail is a focused log search tool, not an observability platform, so you will not get the metric and trace correlation that Datadog or New Relic offers. Check the current per-GB rate on the plans page before you scale up.
What we like- Quick setup for a few servers
- Free plan with 48-hour search and 7-day archive
- Unlimited systems and users
Watch out for- Free plan is limited to 50 MB per month after the first month
- Fewer analytics and correlation features than full observability platforms
How we chose
We built the list from log monitoring tools that appear most often in DevOps and SRE discussions on Reddit, in engineering blogs and on review sites such as G2 and Capterra, then kept vendors that actively sell log ingestion, search and alerting in 2026. We did not run hands-on benchmarks.
For each product we read the vendor's pricing page and documentation, and compared free tiers, per-GB and per-event pricing, retention, user pricing, deployment options and the size of team each tool is designed for. Where a vendor does not publish a price, we say so.
Estimating what log monitoring will cost you
Measure your daily volume first
Before you request any quote, measure how many GB of logs you produce per day and how many events that represents, then multiply by 30 and add room for growth.
Separate ingest, index and retention
Vendors charge for different things. Datadog charges for ingest and separately for indexed events. Grafana Cloud charges for processing, writing and retaining. Elastic and Better Stack charge for ingest and retention. Sumo Logic's Flex model charges for scanning. Build a simple spreadsheet with each component for your volume.
Decide how long you really need logs
Most debugging needs a week or two of searchable logs. Compliance may require a year or more of storage, but that data rarely needs to be instantly searchable. Use cheap archive or flex tiers for long retention and keep hot search short.
Filter before you ship
The cheapest log is the one you never send. Drop health-check noise, sample verbose debug logs and remove duplicate fields at the agent or pipeline level. This often cuts bills more than switching vendors.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best free log monitoring software?
For a hosted service, New Relic's 100 GB of free monthly ingest and Grafana Cloud's 50 GB with 14-day retention are the most generous free tiers. If you can run your own servers, Graylog Open is free with no volume limit.
How much does log monitoring cost per GB?
List prices in this guide range from about $0.07 per GB ingested on Elastic's Logs Essentials tier to $1.15 per GB for Coralogix Frequent Search. Datadog charges $0.10 per GB ingested plus $1.70 per million indexed events, so total cost depends on how many events you index.
Should I self-host my logging stack?
Self-hosting with Graylog Open, Grafana Loki or the Elastic Stack avoids license fees and keeps data on your servers. Your team then owns storage, upgrades and scaling, which is a real cost for small teams.
How long should I keep logs?
Keep logs searchable for as long as you typically need to investigate incidents, often 7 to 30 days. Archive older logs to cheaper storage if security, audit or legal requirements call for longer retention.
Sources we checked (12)
- https://www.datadoghq.com/pricing/?product=log-management
- https://www.datadoghq.com/free-datadog-trial/
- https://grafana.com/pricing/
- https://newrelic.com/pricing
- https://www.elastic.co/pricing/serverless-observability
- https://www.elastic.co/cloud/cloud-trial-overview
- https://www.splunk.com/en_us/products/pricing.html
- https://www.sumologic.com/pricing
- https://betterstack.com/pricing
- https://coralogix.com/pricing/
- https://graylog.org/pricing/
- https://www.papertrail.com/plans/
Is your product missing or out of date?
We review this list regularly. Vendors can request a listing, send updated pricing or ask about featured placement.
Shihab Mia · Founder, Rankite
Shihab has 5+ years in B2B and SaaS SEO. He writes Rankite's software buying guides from pricing pages, documentation and public user reviews. More about Shihab.