Cheapest APM & full-stack tools
Answer: Among 8 verified APM & full-stack vendors with a free plan in our dataset (checked through 2026-10-24), our evidence-based free pick is New Relic: 100 GB data ingest/mo; 1 free full platform user; unlimited basic users; $0.40/GB beyond. Paid entry for New Relic is stated as $49/user (full platform user); $0.40/GB beyond 100 GB. We rank by stated free-plan limits, not invented unit costs.
- Verified free plans in category: 8
- Free pick: New Relic — 100 GB data ingest/mo; 1 free full platform user; unlimited basic users; $0.40/GB beyond
- Pick paid from: $49/user (full platform user); $0.40/GB beyond 100 GB
- Last verified (pick): 2026-10-24
New Relic’s perpetual tier lists 100 GB ingest/month plus one full platform user — the largest stated allowance among verified APM vendors. Grafana Cloud is the pick if you want an open stack (10k active series, 14-day retention). Datadog’s free plan caps at 5 hosts with 1-day metric retention, which is fine for evaluation and little else.
Based only on plan limits recorded from vendor pages.
All verified free plans in APM & full-stack
| Vendor | Free limits | Paid from | Checked | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AppSignal | 30K requests; 1 GB logging; 5-day retention | $23.25/mo (annual) per captured text | 2026-10-24 | source |
| Datadog | Up to 5 hosts; 1-day metric retention; core collection & visualization | $15/host/mo (Infrastructure Pro, billed annually; $18 on-demand) | 2026-10-24 | source |
| groundcover | $0, "free forever", no credit card required | $30/host/mo | 2026-10-24 | source |
| Honeycomb | Up to 20M events/mo and 100M metric data points/mo; 2 triggers | Pro from $150/mo | 2026-10-24 | source |
| Middleware | $0; all features with monthly limits; 100 GB data volume; 1,000 RUM sessions | $0.3/GB metrics, logs, traces | 2026-10-24 | source |
| New Relic free pick | 100 GB data ingest/mo; 1 free full platform user; unlimited basic users; $0.40/GB beyond | $49/user (full platform user); $0.40/GB beyond 100 GB | 2026-10-24 | source |
| Scout APM | $0/mo; 300K transactions/mo; 1 GB logs; 5,000 errors | $19 (smallest paid tier shown) | 2026-10-24 | source |
| Uptrace | Cloud: 50 GB and 5,000 timeseries free per month, then from $0.075/GB | $0.075/GB after 50 GB | 2026-10-24 | source |
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Data: Cheapest APM & full-stack free tiers as of 2026-10-24. Source: O11y Watch (https://o11y-watch.pages.dev). License: CC BY 4.0. Please attribute "O11y Watch" with a link to https://o11y-watch.pages.dev/.