# Focused product comparison

Compare Sightglass with ten broader observability products using narrow, explicit definitions.

Canonical HTML: https://sightglass-docs.trugraph.io/docs/comparison

Checked 12 September 2026 against official public pricing, deployment, and licensing material. `✓` means native, `◐` means partial or configurable, and `×` means absent or not a core product capability.

| Product               | Deployment                 | Public starting price              | OSS | Opt-in | Events | Exact ledger | Traces | DB/deps | Health | 1 container | No daemon |
| --------------------- | -------------------------- | ---------------------------------- | :-: | :----: | :----: | :----------: | :----: | :-----: | :----: | :---------: | :-------: |
| **Sightglass**        | Self-host, one container   | Free; infrastructure only          |  ✓  |   ✓    |   ✓    |      ✓       |   ✓    |    ✓    |   ✓    |      ✓      |     ✓     |
| Datadog APM           | SaaS + host agent          | From $31/host/mo annual            |  ×  |   ×    |   ✓    |      ×       |   ✓    |    ✓    |   ✓    |      ×      |     ×     |
| New Relic             | SaaS + app/host agents     | Free tier; $0.40/GB + access       |  ×  |   ×    |   ✓    |      ×       |   ✓    |    ✓    |   ✓    |      ×      |     ◐     |
| Honeycomb             | SaaS, SDK/OTel             | Free; Pro from $150/mo             |  ×  |   ◐    |   ✓    |      ×       |   ✓    |    ◐    |   ◐    |      ×      |     ✓     |
| Grafana               | Cloud or self-host stack   | OSS free; Cloud $19 + usage        |  ✓  |   ×    |   ◐    |      ×       |   ✓    |    ◐    |   ✓    |      ×      |     ×     |
| Sentry                | SaaS or self-host stack    | Free; Team $26/mo                  |  ×  |   ◐    |   ◐    |      ×       |   ✓    |    ✓    |   ◐    |      ×      |     ✓     |
| Dynatrace             | SaaS or Managed + OneAgent | $58/8-GiB host/mo                  |  ×  |   ×    |   ✓    |      ×       |   ✓    |    ✓    |   ✓    |      ×      |     ×     |
| SigNoz                | Cloud or self-host stack   | Community free; Cloud $49/mo       |  ✓  |   ×    |   ◐    |      ×       |   ✓    |    ✓    |   ✓    |      ×      |     ×     |
| Better Stack          | SaaS + optional collector  | Free; bundles from $25/mo annual   |  ×  |   ×    |   ◐    |      ×       |   ✓    |    ✓    |   ✓    |      ×      |     ◐     |
| Elastic Observability | Cloud or self-host stack   | Self-host free; Cloud usage-priced |  ✓  |   ×    |   ✓    |      ×       |   ✓    |    ✓    |   ✓    |      ×      |     ×     |
| Uptrace               | Cloud or self-host stack   | Community free; 50 GB Cloud free   |  ✓  |   ◐    |   ◐    |      ×       |   ✓    |    ✓    |   ✓    |      ×      |     ✓     |

Definitions are deliberately narrow. **Opt-in** means unselected routes remain silent. **Exact ledger** means an idempotent, exportable business-usage ledger rather than ordinary custom metrics. **One container** means server, storage, API, and UI deploy together. **No daemon** allows an in-process SDK but no required host collector.

Larger platforms add logs, RUM, synthetics, alerting, security, incident management, and enterprise access controls that Sightglass does not claim.

## Official sources

- [Datadog APM pricing](https://www.datadoghq.com/pricing/?product=apm)
- [New Relic pricing](https://newrelic.com/pricing) and [agent installation](https://docs.newrelic.com/docs/new-relic-solutions/get-started/manual-installation/)
- [Honeycomb pricing](https://www.honeycomb.io/pricing)
- [Grafana pricing](https://grafana.com/pricing/) and [deployment options](https://grafana.com/grafana/deployment-options/)
- [Sentry pricing](https://sentry.io/pricing/) and [self-hosting license note](https://github.com/getsentry/develop/blob/master/src/docs/self-hosted/index.mdx)
- [Dynatrace pricing](https://www.dynatrace.com/pricing/) and [Managed deployment](https://docs.dynatrace.com/managed)
- [SigNoz editions](https://signoz.io/pricing/)
- [Better Stack pricing](https://betterstack.com/pricing) and [collector model](https://betterstack.com/docs/logs/collector/)
- [Elastic pricing](https://www.elastic.co/pricing/) and [self-managed editions](https://www.elastic.co/pricing/self-managed)
- [Uptrace pricing](https://uptrace.dev/pricing) and [AGPL project](https://github.com/uptrace/uptrace)

Prices are USD list prices where available, exclude infrastructure and negotiated discounts, and can change. The linked vendor pages are authoritative.