Uptrace

Uptrace is an OpenTelemetry-native platform for analyzing traces, metrics, and logs together. It is best suited to teams that need broad telemetry coverage and want a choice between hosted and self-managed deployment. Its strongest case is the combination of query, dashboard, and alerting tools; the right plan depends on ingestion volume, retention, and how much control the team needs over its data.

Overview

Uptrace brings distributed and transaction tracing, metrics, and logs into one workspace, with dependency mapping, real user monitoring, and log correlation. That breadth can help teams investigate connected signals without splitting the work across separate tools. For organizations that need only one narrow telemetry function, it may be more platform than they need.

Deployment ranges from Uptrace Cloud to self-hosted editions. Cloud retains data for 28 days by default, with cold storage options up to 100 weeks. The privacy policy says traffic is encrypted with SSL/TLS and database backups are encrypted, but most live database data is not encrypted at rest. Cloud runs in German data centers with redundant backups in Finland. On-premises deployment keeps telemetry within the customer's infrastructure, and SOC 2 certification is available on request.

Key features

UQL queries spans and logs, while a PromQL-compatible engine handles metrics. This gives each signal type a suitable query route, but teams should expect to work with two query approaches rather than one universal language.

Dashboards can combine spans, events, logs, and metrics, assembled through the UI or YAML. That suits both interactive exploration and configuration-led workflows. Metric and error monitors can send notifications by email, Slack, PagerDuty, and other channels, while Grafana can use Uptrace as a Prometheus and Tempo data source. A built-in MCP server also connects with AI assistants.

Pricing

Uptrace Cloud starts with a free plan that includes 50 GB per month, 5,000 timeseries per month, unlimited users, services, and hosts, and 28-day default retention. Usage beyond the free allowance costs $0.075/GB. It is a low-friction way to evaluate hosted observability, but teams with sustained ingestion beyond the allowance need to account for metered charges.

The free Community edition is aimed at individuals and offers unlimited usage, 14 days of retention, basic alerting, and community support. It avoids a usage bill, but the shorter retention and basic support make it a more limited fit for production needs. Starter costs $39 /per month and is positioned for side projects; it allows up to 50 GB/day, custom retention, two-factor authentication, and email support.

Team costs $199 /per month and is the stated production default, with up to 200 GB/day, role-based access control, alert routing, and faster support. Business costs $499 /per month and adds up to 500 GB/day, OIDC or SAML single sign-on, and priority support, making it the stronger fit for reliability and compliance demands. Enterprise has custom pricing for custom usage, Kafka and scaling, audit logs, and dedicated support.

A 14-day trial is available. Support is offered by email or scheduled call and typically responds within a few hours. The plan ladder makes costs and capacity easier to match to scale, but Cloud's monthly allowance and per-GB overage, Community's 14-day retention, and the step-up in paid plan limits are important trade-offs.

Platforms

Uptrace supports API, Linux, macOS, Windows, web, and self-hosted use. Self-hosted installation options include Docker, Ansible, and Kubernetes; Linux packages are available for amd64 and arm64, and precompiled binaries are offered for Linux, macOS, and Windows. That range gives infrastructure teams deployment flexibility, while self-hosting also means operating the deployment within their own environment.

Who it's for

Uptrace suits teams that instrument with OpenTelemetry and want tracing, metrics, and logs in a shared analysis and alerting workflow. Community is the natural starting point for individuals, Starter for side projects, and Team for production deployments needing RBAC and alert routing. Business and Enterprise are better aligned with higher throughput or reliability and compliance requirements. Teams prioritizing cloud convenience should weigh Cloud's retention and ingestion charges; teams requiring telemetry to remain in their own infrastructure should consider an on-premises edition.

Pros and cons

• Broad signal coverage: traces, metrics, logs, dependency mapping, real user monitoring, and log correlation support investigations across telemetry types.
• Flexible dashboards and queries: dashboards work across spans, events, logs, and metrics and can be built in UI or YAML, while UQL and PromQL-compatible metrics analysis serve distinct data needs.
• Deployment choice: Cloud, self-hosted, and on-premises options let teams balance operating effort against infrastructure control.
• Cloud cost and retention require planning: the free allowance is 50 GB/month and additional usage costs $0.075/GB, while default retention is 28 days.
• Live data-at-rest protection is limited: most live database data is not encrypted at rest, a consideration for buyers with strict security requirements.

Alternatives

Grafana Cloud Application Observability is worth considering for teams seeking a freemium option with a free tier of 2,232 host hours; its Pro plan charges $0.025 per host hour plus a $19 monthly platform fee, with pay-as-you-go usage above that.

Apache SkyWalking is a free, self-hosted open-source observability platform for teams that want that deployment model. AWS X-Ray may suit teams whose needs fit its pay-as-you-go tracing model, which includes 100,000 recorded traces per month and the first 1,000,000 retrieved or scanned traces monthly at no charge.

Honeycomb offers a freemium option with up to 20 million events per month, up to 100 million metrics data points per month, and two triggers on its free plan. Hubble is a free open-source observability layer that requires Cilium. Jaeger is a free, 100% open-source, cloud-native option for teams choosing self-hosted deployment.

SigNoz is another freemium option, with a self-hosted community edition that leaves infrastructure, storage, scaling, upgrades, and backups to the user. Tracetest is a free open-source alternative.

For broader comparisons, see Distributed Tracing Tools, Application Performance Monitoring, Observability Platforms, and Container Monitoring.

Verdict

Choose Uptrace if your team wants an OpenTelemetry-centered workspace for traces, metrics, and logs, with a practical path from free evaluation to self-hosted or higher-capacity plans. Its main advantage is breadth paired with deployment choice. Look elsewhere if your requirements demand encryption at rest for live telemetry, or if Cloud's retention window and usage-based overage do not fit your budget or data policy.