Honeycomb vs OpenObserve: Pricing Comparison (2026)
Honeycomb starts at $150/mo. OpenObserve starts at Free. OpenObserve is $150/mo cheaper on the entry tier than Honeycomb.
See price history: Honeycomb · OpenObserve
Honeycomb is developer-first observability built for high-cardinality queries and distributed tracing. Free forever (20M events/mo + 100M metrics data points, 2 triggers); Pro from $150/mo (up to 750M events + 3.75B metrics data points + SSO + 2 SLOs); Enterprise custom (10B+ events/year base). Includes BubbleUp, Canvas AI Copilot, Honeycomb MCP, agent timeline, and OpenTelemetry-native support.
OpenObserve is a Datadog/Splunk/New Relic alternative positioned on transparent pay-as-you-go pricing with no per-seat or per-host fees. Cloud PAYG: $0.50/GB ingestion + $0.01/GB query (30% off with annual commit). Includes 15-month metrics retention + 30-day non-metrics retention default. Enterprise adds SSO/RBAC, AI SRE agent, BYO bucket infinite retention. Self-hosted OSS is free; Self-hosted Enterprise free up to 50GB/day.
All plans compared
| # | Plan | Honeycomb monthly | Honeycomb annual | OpenObserve monthly | OpenObserve annual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Free / Cloud Professional (PAYG) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2 | Pro / Cloud Enterprise | 150 | 150 | custom | custom |
| 3 | Enterprise / Self-hosted (OSS) | custom | custom | 0 | 0 |
| 4 | Self-hosted Enterprise | — | — | 0 | 0 |
What each is best for
Honeycomb is developer-first observability built for high-cardinality queries and distributed tracing. Free forever (20M events/mo + 100M metrics data points, 2 triggers); Pro from $150/mo (up to 750M events + 3.75B metrics data points + SSO + 2 SLOs); Enterprise custom (10B+ events/year base). Includes BubbleUp, Canvas AI Copilot, Honeycomb MCP, agent timeline, and OpenTelemetry-native support.
OpenObserve is a Datadog/Splunk/New Relic alternative positioned on transparent pay-as-you-go pricing with no per-seat or per-host fees. Cloud PAYG: $0.50/GB ingestion + $0.01/GB query (30% off with annual commit). Includes 15-month metrics retention + 30-day non-metrics retention default. Enterprise adds SSO/RBAC, AI SRE agent, BYO bucket infinite retention. Self-hosted OSS is free; Self-hosted Enterprise free up to 50GB/day.
At a glance
| Honeycomb | OpenObserve | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Entry price | $150/mo | Free |
| Enterprise available | Yes | Yes |
| Pricing model | Per Usage | Per Usage |
| Last verified | August 18, 2026 | August 18, 2026 |
| Full pricing | View full pricing | View full pricing |
Pricing last verified August 18, 2026. Tracked daily.