About
Gigapipe is a unified observability platform built for engineering teams, DevOps, and SREs who need full-stack monitoring without vendor lock-in or unpredictable costs. Originally born in 2018 as the open-source project 'cLoki,' it has matured into a production-grade alternative to Grafana Cloud, Datadog, and Elastic — natively compatible with OpenTelemetry, Loki, Prometheus, Tempo, Pyroscope, InfluxDB, Elastic, and Datadog protocols. At its core, Gigapipe is powered by ClickHouse, a high-performance OLAP database that stores all observability signals — logs, metrics, traces, and profiles — in a single correlated format. This architecture enables blazing-fast queries, efficient compression, and deep cross-signal correlation without the need for separate backends like Loki, Tempo, or Prometheus. Key capabilities include polyglot ingestion (zero pipeline rewrites needed), retention of the familiar Grafana visualization layer, and flexible deployment options: on-premise, private cloud, or fully managed SaaS. Gigapipe's flat-rate pricing model charges based on infrastructure rather than per-GB ingested or per active metric, making it significantly more predictable and affordable at scale compared to traditional SaaS observability vendors. The platform is especially suited for telco operators, high-throughput distributed systems, and enterprises that require data sovereignty, custom retention policies, and high availability. An AGPLv3 community edition is freely available, with managed Pro plans starting at €349/month and Enterprise tiers offering custom resources, dedicated SLAs, and onboarding assistance.
Key Features
- Unified Observability Engine: Consolidates logs, metrics, traces, and profiling in a single ClickHouse-powered platform, eliminating silos and enabling deep cross-signal correlation.
- Polyglot Protocol Compatibility: Natively supports OpenTelemetry, Loki, Prometheus, Tempo, Pyroscope, InfluxDB, Elastic, and Datadog ingestion and query protocols out of the box — no pipeline rewrites required.
- Grafana UI Retention: Keeps the familiar Grafana visualization layer intact while replacing costly proprietary backends, minimizing retraining and migration friction.
- Flexible Deployment Options: Deploy on-premise, in your own cloud, or as a fully managed SaaS service. Supports ClickHouse and S3-compatible object storage for maximum control and data sovereignty.
- Flat-Rate Predictable Pricing: Charges based on infrastructure tier rather than per-GB ingested or per-metric, making observability costs predictable and significantly cheaper than competitors at scale.
Use Cases
- Replace Grafana Cloud or Datadog with a cost-effective, open-source alternative that retains the Grafana UI and all existing dashboards.
- Centralize logs, metrics, traces, and profiling for a microservices or distributed architecture in a single correlated observability platform.
- Monitor telco infrastructure KPIs such as call success rates, latency, and resource utilization using built-in VoIP and HEPIC tracing support.
- Run high-throughput observability workloads on-premise or in a private cloud to maintain data sovereignty and avoid unpredictable per-GB billing.
- Migrate existing OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, or Loki pipelines to a unified ClickHouse-backed store without modifying agents or rewriting data pipelines.
Pros
- No Vendor Lock-in: AGPLv3 open-source license with full data ownership — self-host, migrate, or extend freely without dependency on a proprietary vendor.
- Dramatically Lower Costs: Flat-rate pricing makes Gigapipe far more cost-effective than Grafana Cloud, Datadog, or Elastic for high-throughput workloads.
- Familiar Tooling, Zero Rewriting: Compatible with existing Grafana dashboards and all major observability protocols, so teams can migrate without changing agents or rebuilding pipelines.
- High-Performance ClickHouse Backend: Delivers blazing-fast queries and efficient compression even at large scale, with unmetered ingestion limited only by your infrastructure.
Cons
- Infrastructure Expertise Required for Self-Hosting: Deploying and tuning a ClickHouse-backed observability stack on-premise demands meaningful infrastructure knowledge and operational overhead.
- Pro Plan May Be Steep for Small Teams: The managed Pro tier starts at €349/month, which may be a significant expense for solo developers or very small startups.
- Opaque Enterprise Pricing: Enterprise plans require contacting sales for custom quotes, which can slow procurement decisions for larger organizations.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Gigapipe and what does it replace?
Gigapipe is a unified observability platform that replaces complex, vendor-locked tools like Grafana Cloud, Datadog, and Elastic. It consolidates logs, metrics, traces, and profiling into a single ClickHouse-powered engine while retaining the Grafana UI you're already familiar with.
How is Gigapipe's pricing different from Datadog or Grafana Cloud?
Unlike traditional SaaS vendors that charge per GB ingested or per active metric, Gigapipe uses flat-rate pricing based on your infrastructure tier. This makes costs predictable and typically much lower at scale.
Is Gigapipe open source?
Yes. Gigapipe is available under the AGPLv3 license. The project originated in 2018 as the open-source 'cLoki' project and has since grown into a production-grade observability platform.
Which protocols and agents does Gigapipe support?
Gigapipe supports OpenTelemetry, Loki, Prometheus, Tempo, Pyroscope, InfluxDB, Elastic, and Datadog ingestion and query protocols out of the box, so you can integrate your existing agents and tools without rewriting pipelines.
What deployment options does Gigapipe offer?
Gigapipe can be deployed on-premise, in your own cloud, or as a fully managed SaaS. It supports ClickHouse and S3-compatible object storage, and offers a free open-source edition, a Pro managed plan (starting at €349/month with a 14-day free trial), and custom Enterprise plans.
