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Seq
What Seq is
Seq is a self-hosted telemetry server from Datalust, a Brisbane, Australia company building it since 2013. It stores structured application events and makes them searchable through a web interface, with analysis for logs and traces and metrics ingestion and analysis in release 2026.1. Alerts can be based on logs, traces, dashboard charts, or metric charts and sent to configured applications. Seq documents ingestion through OpenTelemetry, Serilog, Microsoft.Extensions.Logging, NLog, log4net, and Node.js libraries including Pino, Winston, and Bunyan. Seq Apps can notify Slack, Microsoft Teams, email services, issue trackers, and pagers. Deployment is supported on Windows or Docker/Linux, on premises or in a public cloud. Data remains on the hosting machine or infrastructure, and log or trace data is not sent to Datalust. Security includes HTTPS, role-based permissions, hashed credentials, and optional audit logging. Plans include a free Individual license and paid tiers from $1,090 a year.
Who it suits
Seq suits teams managing structured logs, traces, and metrics in self-hosted or isolated environments. It also fits organizations needing configurable alerts, integrations, and deployment control.
What it does well
- Searches structured logs and traces
- Metrics ingestion added in release 2026.1
- Supports many telemetry ingestion libraries
- Deploys on Windows or Docker/Linux
- Free Individual plan available
What to know first
- Individual license allows one web-interface user
- Paid Team plan costs $1,090 a year
- Self-hosted deployment requires infrastructure
- Some features are limited to higher plans
Plans
| Plan | Billed and limits | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Individual | $0 /year · 1 user · community support · 50 GB storage · up to 100 million metric samples | Free |
| Team | $1,090 /year · up to 10 users · priority email support · 100 GB storage · up to 1 billion metric samples · 1 server install | $1,090 a year |
| Datacenter | $10,990 /year · unlimited users · priority email support · unlimited storage · unlimited metric samples · unlimited server installs · clustering · auditing · assisted onboarding | $10,990 a year |
| Standard | $2,990 /year · unlimited users · priority email support · unlimited storage · unlimited metric samples · up to 3 server installs | $2,990 a year |
As datalust.co lists them, read 15 Oct 2026. The maker's own page has the final word.
Verdict
Seq provides searchable telemetry storage, alerting, integrations, and deployment flexibility while keeping data on your infrastructure. The free tier is limited to one user, and multi-user or expanded capacity requires paid licensing.
Facts from Seq's own pages
- AI agents
- Seq supports agent integration through its command-line client and MCP server. · datalust.co, 15 Oct 2026
- AI and agent access
- Seq's product page says agents can integrate through its CLI or MCP for live debugging or alert triage. · datalust.co, 12 Oct 2026
- Air-gap use
- Seq is designed to work with hardware and network isolation, and outbound connectivity for update checks or telemetry is opt-in. · datalust.co, 12 Oct 2026
- Alerts
- Users can define custom alert conditions and send notifications to Slack, Teams and email. · datalust.co, 15 Oct 2026
- CLI forwarder
- seqcli includes a store-and-forward ingestion proxy for intermittently connected systems. · github.com, 15 Oct 2026
- Command-line client
- seqcli can log, search, tail, query and ingest JSON or plain-text files from any operating system. · github.com, 15 Oct 2026
- Company
- Datalust was founded in Australia in 2013 by Nicholas and Susan Blumhardt. · datalust.co, 15 Oct 2026
- Compliance deployment
- Datalust says Seq can run entirely on customer servers without external cloud services, supporting secured GDPR, DORA, HIPAA or PCI environments. · datalust.co, 15 Oct 2026
- C# SDK
- The Seq.Api NuGet package provides C# representations and helpers for the server API. · github.com, 15 Oct 2026
- Dashboards
- Seq includes saved queries and dashboards without imposing limits on their number. · datalust.co, 15 Oct 2026
- Data handling
- Seq stores log data on the machine or cloud infrastructure hosting it, and the pricing FAQ says log and trace data is never sent to or shared with Datalust. · datalust.co, 12 Oct 2026
- Deployment
- Seq is self-hosted and supported on Windows or under Docker/Linux, and can be deployed on-premises or in a public cloud. · datalust.co, 12 Oct 2026
- Documentation depth
- The documentation covers ingestion, querying, dashboards, alerting, authentication, storage, backups, Docker, Kubernetes, Azure, clustering, APIs and troubleshooting. · datalust.co, 15 Oct 2026
- Extensibility
- Seq plug-in input and output apps can be written in C# or other languages. · datalust.co, 15 Oct 2026
- Founded
- 2013 · datalust.co, 28 Sept 2026
- Headquarters
- Datalust lists Level 1, 240 Queen Street, Brisbane 4000, Australia. · datalust.co, 15 Oct 2026
- Integrations
- Documented ingestion options include Serilog, Microsoft.Extensions.Logging, OpenTelemetry, Node.js libraries, HTTP, GELF, syslog, RabbitMQ, Docker and Kubernetes. · datalust.co, 15 Oct 2026
- Legal name
- The license agreement identifies the maker as Datalust Pty Ltd. · datalust.co, 15 Oct 2026
- License
- Seq is proprietary subscription software; its agreement grants a non-exclusive, non-transferable internal-use license and forbids copying, resale and source-code derivation. · datalust.co, 15 Oct 2026
- License limits
- The Individual license permits one person to access a Seq web interface, while more than one user of an instance requires a multi-user subscription. · datalust.co, 12 Oct 2026
- Light workload hardware
- For a light workload, documentation recommends at least 2 CPU cores, 3.5 GB RAM and 50 GB SSD storage. · datalust.co, 15 Oct 2026
- Limit: cloud cost
- A GitHub discussion reported that running Seq in Azure with premium storage was expensive relative to other services. · github.com, 15 Oct 2026
- Limit: ecosystem focus
- Toolradar lists .NET and Windows focus, per-user pricing and a learning curve among Seq’s drawbacks. · toolradar.com, 15 Oct 2026
- Limit: forwarder security
- The seqcli forwarder does not authenticate incoming requests by default and can expose disk-exhaustion risk if reachable by untrusted clients. · github.com, 15 Oct 2026
Where Seq stands on Freedom251
- Log Monitoring Tools#14 of 28
- Log Management Software#57 of 111