Maple

Maple is an OpenTelemetry platform for teams bringing distributed-system telemetry and browser activity into a shared workflow. It suits teams that want deployment flexibility, from hosted service to self-hosted infrastructure or a local binary. Its breadth is compelling, but cloud usage charges can grow beyond the Startup quotas and its selected data region cannot later be changed.

Overview

Maple ingests traces, logs, and metrics and stores them in ClickHouse. Traces show request spans alongside logs and service data, while structured logs can lead directly to their traces. That connected context is useful when an issue crosses services; teams seeking automated synthetic checks will need another tool, since Maple does not include synthetic monitoring.

Browser session replay adds a view of user activity, recording clicks, routes, console lines, and failed requests. A shared session ID links that activity to traces. Product events are unlimited and free during beta, which gives teams room to use them without adding a separate event quota during that period.

Key features

Telemetry and investigation

Users can search structured logs by severity, service, or attribute, explore metrics, build dashboards and service maps, and set metric alerts. This combination makes Maple a credible choice for teams standardizing on OpenTelemetry who want investigation and operational visibility in one platform. Alert destinations include Slack, PagerDuty, Discord, Telegram, email, webhooks, and Hazel.

Integrations and automation

SDKs and guides cover Effect, Node.js, Next.js, Python, Go, Rust, Java, C#, Kotlin, and Laravel. Integrations also include Cloudflare, PlanetScale, GitHub, WarpStream, and Hazel. A hosted MCP server and documented REST API let agents and automation search telemetry, triage errors, build dashboards, and manage alert rules. That is useful for teams building those workflows, though it does not by itself remove the need to manage telemetry volume and retention.

Deployment and data control

Maple Cloud offers US and EU data regions; EU telemetry is stored and processed in Frankfurt. The region is a consequential setup choice because it cannot be changed later. Customers can instead run Maple on their own infrastructure: its source is published under FSL-1.1, with each release converting to Apache 2.0 after two years. Maple Local packages ingestion, an embedded database, query API, and dashboard in one binary for a developer machine, with no account or cloud service.

Pricing

Maple has a free plan, a 14-day trial, and paid plans from $39/mo. The no-cost options are meaningfully different from hosted Startup: they avoid a subscription, but place infrastructure or local use at the center of the choice.

• Self-hosted — free: Run the source on your own infrastructure, with retention and residency under your control. It suits teams willing to operate the deployment; it is not the hosted, quota-defined option.
• Local — free: One binary on a developer machine, with no account, cloud, or rate limits. It is suited to individual local use rather than a stated hosted team plan.
• Startup — $39 a month: Includes 100 GB each of logs, traces, and metrics, then $0.30/GB per signal; 5,000 browser sessions, then $0.002/session; unlimited product events free during beta; and 30-day retention. It includes a private support channel. The included quotas make the entry price clear, but teams with growing telemetry or replay traffic should account for the metered overages and retention limit.
• Enterprise — custom pricing, from $2,000: Higher volume, custom retention, priority support, and the option to run in your own cloud account. It is the better fit when Startup's retention or volume terms do not work; the starting price makes it a substantial step up.

Platforms

Maple supports API, iOS, Linux, macOS, self-hosted, and web. That span covers developer environments and self-managed deployments alongside web access, without indicating a Windows platform.

Who it's for

Maple is best for OpenTelemetry-oriented engineering teams that want traces, structured logs, metrics, and browser replay linked in one investigation path, and value a choice of cloud, self-hosted, or local deployment. It is less suitable for teams requiring synthetic monitoring, or those that need longer-than-30-day retention on Startup or a cloud region they can change later.

Pros and cons

• Pro: Traces, logs, metrics, and replay share investigation context, including direct log-to-trace navigation and session-to-trace linkage.
• Pro: Self-hosted and Local options offer no-cost routes for teams that want infrastructure control or a single-machine setup.
• Pro: The hosted MCP server and REST API support telemetry search and operational automation.
• Con: Startup's 30-day retention may be too short for teams needing longer history without Enterprise custom retention.
• Con: Startup charges per GB and browser session after its included quotas, so costs rise with usage.
• Con: Maple Cloud's region choice is permanent, and the product does not include synthetic monitoring.

Alternatives

Observability Platforms is a useful category starting point for comparing options beyond Maple.

• Dynatrace Kubernetes Monitoring is worth considering when Kubernetes monitoring is the priority; it has no free plan, offers a free trial, and bills at $0.002 per hour per pod.
• Middleware may suit readers comparing a broader free allowance: its Free Forever plan includes up to 100GB of data, 1k RUM sessions, and 20k synthetic checks, unlike Maple's lack of synthetic monitoring.
• Grafana Cloud Application Observability is an alternative for readers seeking a free plan with 2,232 host hours, or a pay-as-you-go Pro plan billed at $0.025 per host hour plus a $19 monthly platform fee.
• New Relic Kubernetes Monitoring is an option for readers who prefer a free plan or annual Pro commitments; Pro is $349 a year and includes 100 GB free data ingest, then $0.40/GB beyond that limit.
• OpenSearch is a neutral alternative for readers considering a free, Apache 2.0 open-source option.
• Uptrace is worth comparing for its Uptrace Cloud allowance of 50 GB free per month, then $0.075/GB, with unlimited users, services, and hosts.
• groundcover may suit readers seeking a free-forever plan with 12-hour data retention, Slack Community support, and BYOC.
• Honeycomb is an alternative for readers whose needs fit its free limits of up to 20M events per month, 100M metrics data points per month, and two triggers.

Verdict

Choose Maple if your team wants OpenTelemetry traces, logs, metrics, and browser replay connected, with the freedom to use hosted, self-hosted, or local deployment. The main reason to look elsewhere is operational fit: Startup has 30-day retention and usage-based overages, cloud region selection is permanent, and synthetic monitoring is absent.