SigNoz iconSigNoz

oss Freemium Star27k

Open source APM and observability platform with unified traces, metrics, and logs built on OpenTelemetry and ClickHouse

observability self hosted
27.2K+ GitHub Stars
$6.5M Series A
100% OpenTelemetry

Overview

SigNoz is an open source Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and observability platform that provides a unified view of traces, metrics, and logs in a single pane of glass. Built natively on OpenTelemetry, it uses ClickHouse as its columnar datastore for high-performance querying at scale. SigNoz was founded in 2021 as an open source alternative to commercial APM tools like Datadog and New Relic, offering comparable features without vendor lock-in or unpredictable pricing. It supports distributed tracing, infrastructure monitoring, log management, and custom dashboards, making it a comprehensive solution for modern cloud-native applications.

The Verdict

Who Should Use SigNoz?

Best For

  • Teams wanting Datadog-like features without the cost
  • Organizations already using or planning OpenTelemetry
  • Companies needing data sovereignty (self-hosted)
  • Kubernetes and microservices environments
  • Teams with unpredictable data volumes

Not Ideal For

  • Teams needing zero-setup (use Datadog)
  • Organizations without DevOps resources for self-hosting
  • Legacy monolith applications
  • Teams needing extensive pre-built integrations

What's Great

  • Truly open source (MIT + Apache 2.0 licenses)
  • Native OpenTelemetry support - no proprietary agents
  • Unified traces, metrics, and logs in one platform
  • ClickHouse backend enables fast queries at scale
  • No per-host or per-seat pricing surprises
  • Correlated data - click from trace to logs instantly
  • Self-hosted option for full data control
  • Active community and rapid development
Official Docs - GitHub

Watch Out For

  • Self-hosted requires ClickHouse ops knowledge
  • Fewer pre-built integrations than commercial tools
  • UI polish still catching up to Datadog
  • Alerting features less mature than established players
  • Smaller ecosystem of dashboards and plugins
  • Learning curve for OpenTelemetry newcomers
GitHub Issues - Community

Pricing

Community (Self-Hosted)
$0
Full features, your infrastructure
Cloud Teams
Usage-based
$0.30/GB logs, $0.10/GB traces
Cloud Enterprise
Custom
SSO, SAML, SLAs, dedicated support
View all features & details

Core Features

  • Distributed tracing with flame graphs
  • Metrics monitoring and dashboards
  • Log management with full-text search
  • Infrastructure monitoring
  • Exception tracking
  • Service maps and dependency graphs
  • Custom dashboards and panels
  • Alerting with multiple channels

Integrations

  • OpenTelemetry (all languages)
  • Kubernetes / Docker
  • AWS, GCP, Azure
  • PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB
  • Redis, Elasticsearch
  • Apache Kafka
  • Nginx, Apache
  • Prometheus exporters

Deployment Options

  • SigNoz Cloud (managed)
  • Self-hosted (Docker Compose)
  • Self-hosted (Kubernetes/Helm)
  • ClickHouse data backend
  • Multi-region support (Cloud)

Language SDKs

  • Java / Spring Boot
  • Python / Django / Flask
  • Node.js / Express / NestJS
  • Go
  • .NET / C#
  • Ruby on Rails
  • PHP / Laravel
  • Rust

How It Compares

Feature SigNoz Datadog New Relic Jaeger
Open Source Yes (MIT/Apache) No No Yes
Self-Hosted Yes No No Yes
Unified Platform Traces + Metrics + Logs All-in-one All-in-one Traces only
OpenTelemetry Native 100% native Supported Supported Native
Data Backend ClickHouse Proprietary Proprietary Cassandra/ES
Pricing Model Usage-based / Free Per host + data Per GB ingested Free
Starting Cost $0 (self-host) ~$23/host/mo $0 (100GB free) $0
Custom Dashboards Yes Extensive Yes Limited
Alerting Basic Advanced Advanced External
Best For Cost-conscious, OTel users Enterprise, full-stack Full observability Tracing only

Key Differentiators

OpenTelemetry-First

  • No proprietary agents required
  • Vendor-neutral instrumentation
  • Future-proof your telemetry
  • Easy migration between tools

ClickHouse Performance

  • Columnar storage for fast aggregations
  • Handles billions of events/day
  • Cost-effective storage at scale
  • Real-time querying capabilities

User Reviews

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