Grafana

Open-source observability platform for metrics, logs, and traces — the visualization layer for Prometheus and the backbone of many monitoring stacks.

Best for: DevOps and SRE teams that want open-source, self-hosted observability with full data control · teams building on Prometheus who need a visualization layer · organizations building a cost-effective monitoring stack to replace expensive SaaS tools

Free plan

4.5/5Editorial score 83/100grafana.com

Starts at

Free (3 users)

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Editorial score83/100

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The editorial note

What to know about Grafana

Grafana is an open-source data visualization and observability platform used to create dashboards from metrics, logs, and traces. It connects to over 150 data sources including Prometheus, Elasticsearch, CloudWatch, PostgreSQL, and Datadog — enabling teams to build real-time monitoring dashboards. Grafana Cloud offers a managed SaaS version, while self-hosted Grafana gives full control. It is the standard visualization layer for DevOps and SRE teams.

Is it right for you?

Who Grafana suits

Choose it if

DevOps and SRE teams that want open-source, self-hosted observability with full data control
teams building on Prometheus who need a visualization layer
organizations building a cost-effective monitoring stack to replace expensive SaaS tools

Look elsewhere if

Teams wanting a fully managed APM without building dashboards themselves — Datadog or New Relic provide opinionated out-of-the-box observability with less manual configuration

What you get

Key features

Multi-source dashboard creation (150+ connectors)
Time-series metrics visualization
Log aggregation and search (Loki)
Distributed tracing (Tempo)
Alerting and on-call notifications
Team permissions and dashboard sharing
Grafana Cloud managed stack
Plugin marketplace

Works with

Integrations8

PrometheusElasticsearchInfluxDBCloudWatchDatadogPostgreSQLMySQLPagerDuty

What it costs

Pricing

Grafana pricing plans
Plan	Price	What it includes
Free	Free (3 users)Billed monthly	Open-source observability stack or cloud free for 3 users
Pro	$29 / user / monthBilled monthly	More users, longer metrics retention, and team management
Advanced	Contact sales	Enterprise plugins, analytics, and enhanced SLA

Prices are recorded from the vendor's public pricing page and can change. Check before you buy.

The trade-off

Pros and cons

Pros

Open-source with a generous free self-hosted version and active community
Connects to 150+ data sources including every major metrics, logs, and tracing system
Highly customizable dashboards with alerting, annotations, and team sharing
Grafana Cloud provides managed Prometheus, Loki, and Tempo in one platform
Plugin ecosystem extends functionality for specialized data sources

Cons

Steep learning curve for building complex dashboards without prior observability experience
Self-hosting requires ongoing maintenance for upgrades, plugins, and security
Alerting configuration can be complex for sophisticated multi-condition alerts
Grafana Cloud pricing escalates quickly with high data ingestion volumes

Quick read

At a glance

Category: Development & Coding
Pricing model: Freemium
Entry plan: Free (3 users)
Free plan: Available
Free trial: Not listed
Website: grafana.com

The verdict

Our take on Grafana

Grafana is the essential visualization layer for any Prometheus-based monitoring stack and the backbone of the most cost-effective self-hosted observability architectures. For teams willing to invest in self-hosting, Grafana + Loki + Tempo + Mimir provides full-stack observability at dramatically lower cost than Datadog. Grafana Cloud's free tier is generous enough for small services. Teams that want zero infrastructure overhead should evaluate Datadog or New Relic instead.

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Editorial review

From the journal

Editorial review of Grafana

By TopToolsPick Editorial

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