Grafana Labs Launches Free Tier for Managed Observability

Grafana Labs, the organization responsible for the widely adopted open-source monitoring and observability solution, has revealed a new iteration of its cloud-based offering alongside the introduction of a complimentary access level.

The no-cost offering for Grafana Cloud incorporates certain restrictions, yet provides access to the majority of Grafana Labs’ instruments designed for overseeing contemporary applications. Furthermore, Grafana’s commercial Pro subscription for its managed service is receiving enhancements, now featuring support for five times the quantity of metrics on a monthly basis.

The free tier provides users with a 14-day data preservation window for metrics and logs, support for up to three collaborators, 50 GB of log storage capacity, and accommodation for up to 10,000 data streams from Prometheus and Graphite. Pro subscriptions expand these capabilities to 15,000 data streams, a 15-month retention period for metrics—an increase from the prior 3 months—and 100 GB of logs with a one-month retention duration.

Image Credits: Grafana

Providing a managed service is a standard practice for companies built around open-source projects, as it represents a logical method for generating revenue from their tools.

“The initial development of Grafana Cloud was deeply rooted in open source,” explains the company in today’s announcement. “Similar to how our features evolve, Grafana Cloud originated from the challenges and requirements of our open-source user base. Our goal was to provide a streamlined method for users to deploy Grafana. It was a product developed in response to a direct need, and it aligned with what our customers were requesting at the time.”

Considering its beginnings in the open-source community, the team determined that offering a free plan was a natural progression. Additionally, the introduction of a free tier is intended to simplify the onboarding process for new users—potentially converting them into paid subscribers in the future.

Image Credits: Grafana