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About
Uptrace is a full-stack observability platform built natively on OpenTelemetry and powered by ClickHouse, designed to give engineering teams complete visibility into their applications at a fraction of typical observability costs — up to 90% less than Datadog or New Relic. The platform consolidates three core observability signals — distributed traces, metrics, and logs — into a single unified dashboard, eliminating the need to jump between tools. Its APM module surfaces a service dependency graph, RED metrics (request rate, error rate, latency), p50/p90/p99 latency percentiles, top errors, slow endpoints, and frequent log patterns at a glance. Uptrace ingests data from OpenTelemetry SDKs, Prometheus, Vector, FluentBit, CloudWatch, and more, making it compatible with virtually any modern stack. Deployment is highly flexible: teams can self-host for free via Docker, Ansible, or Kubernetes with no feature restrictions and full data ownership, or use Uptrace Cloud for a fully managed, zero-ops experience. On-premise installations are also available for compliance-sensitive environments. Pricing is transparent and predictable — pay per GB ingested and per active timeseries, with no per-seat fees, no hidden charges, and a monthly spending cap guarantee. Volume discounts apply automatically, and the first month is free. Uptrace is trusted by 1,000+ active installations across teams of all sizes, from startups to large enterprises, and has been in production for 5+ years with 99.9% uptime.
Key Features
- Unified Distributed Tracing: Service dependency graphs, RED metrics, latency percentiles (p50/p90/p99), top errors, and slowest endpoints in a single APM dashboard.
- OpenTelemetry-Native Ingestion: Built on the OpenTelemetry standard and compatible with Prometheus, Vector, FluentBit, CloudWatch, and all major OTel SDKs for language-agnostic instrumentation.
- Three Signals, One Platform: Traces, metrics, and logs are stored and queried together in ClickHouse, enabling correlated investigations without switching tools.
- Flexible Deployment Options: Self-host for free via Docker, Ansible, or Kubernetes with no feature limits and full data ownership, or use Uptrace Cloud for a fully managed, zero-ops experience.
- Predictable, Seat-Free Pricing: Pay per GB ingested and per active timeseries metric. No per-seat fees, no hidden charges, monthly spend caps, and automatic volume discounts.
Use Cases
- Monitoring microservices and distributed backend architectures with end-to-end distributed tracing and service dependency mapping.
- Replacing Datadog or New Relic to reduce observability spend by up to 90% while maintaining full-stack visibility.
- Self-hosting a compliant observability stack for regulated industries where data must remain on-premise.
- Correlating application errors, slow endpoints, and infrastructure metrics in a single platform to accelerate incident response.
- Instrumenting cloud-native applications using OpenTelemetry SDKs across multiple languages and frameworks.
Pros
- Massive Cost Savings: Up to 90% cheaper than Datadog or New Relic for equivalent observability coverage, with a transparent cost comparison calculator provided.
- Free Self-Hosting with Full Features: The open-source self-hosted edition carries no feature restrictions — teams get every capability without a license fee.
- No Per-Seat Fees: Unlimited users are included at every tier, making it cost-effective for large engineering organizations.
- Fast Time-to-Value: OpenTelemetry integration is straightforward, with first traces typically appearing in under 10 minutes using any OTel SDK.
Cons
- Requires OpenTelemetry Knowledge: Teams unfamiliar with OpenTelemetry instrumentation may face a learning curve when setting up SDKs and pipelines.
- Self-Hosting Adds Operational Overhead: While the software is free to self-host, teams must manage their own infrastructure, upgrades, and storage scaling.
- Niche Ecosystem vs. Established Leaders: Uptrace has fewer native integrations and third-party plugins compared to mature platforms like Datadog or Grafana Cloud.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does Uptrace compare to Datadog in cost?
Uptrace can be 80–90% cheaper than Datadog for equivalent full-stack observability. For example, a large engineering team (150 engineers, 10TB APM, 20TB logs) costs ~$2,039/month on Uptrace vs. ~$42,468/month on Datadog. Uptrace charges per GB ingested and per active timeseries with no per-seat fees.
Can I self-host Uptrace for free?
Yes. Uptrace is available as an open-source project on GitHub and can be self-hosted via Docker, Ansible, or Kubernetes at no cost with no feature restrictions. You own your data completely.
What data sources does Uptrace support for ingestion?
Uptrace ingests data from OpenTelemetry SDKs (all supported languages), Prometheus, Vector, FluentBit, AWS CloudWatch, and more. Any source that speaks the OpenTelemetry protocol (OTLP) works out of the box.
Is there a free trial for Uptrace Cloud?
Yes. Uptrace Cloud includes 1TB of free storage and 100,000 timeseries with no credit card required. The first paid month is also free.
Does Uptrace support alerting and SSO?
Yes. Uptrace includes built-in alerting on metrics, traces, and logs, as well as Single Sign-On (SSO) support for enterprise teams.
