Side by side
Elastic Observability vs Prometheus
Both stand on monitoring observability. Which one you can start free with, which one lets you read the code, and what each costs once you pay.
Free plan APILinuxMac+3
Elastic Observability combines telemetry analysis, monitoring, and deployment options, with usage-based Serverless rates listed by data type. Teams should account for ingestion and retention costs when assessing that option.
Visit Elastic Observability
Free plan LinuxMacSelf-hosted+2
Prometheus provides a free monitoring and alerting toolkit with flexible metric collection and querying. Its stated accuracy limitation makes it unsuitable for per-request billing workloads.
Visit PrometheusThe facts
| Elastic Observability | Prometheus | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | Not published | Not published |
| Runs on | API, Linux, Mac, Self-hosted, Web, Windows | Linux, Mac, Self-hosted, Web, Windows |
| Lowest paid plan | Free or on request | Free or on request |
| Plans published | 2 | 1 |
| Maker | Elastic Observability | Not published |
| Website | elastic.co | prometheus.io |
| On monitoring observability | #3 of 30 | #12 of 30 |
Elastic Observability: what it does well
- Combines logs, metrics, traces, and user experience data.
- Supports OpenTelemetry without proprietary agents.
- Offers Serverless, Hosted, and self-managed deployment.
- Serverless Cloud states a 99.95% monthly uptime SLA.
What to know first
- Serverless charges depend on usage and telemetry.
- Pricing is available on request.
- Mobile app monitoring is not supported.
Prometheus: what it does well
- Free and open source.
- PromQL queries time-series metrics.
- Targets can be discovered or configured statically.
- Server runs without external dependencies.
- TLS and HTTP Basic Authentication are supported.
What to know first
- Not recommended where data must be 100% accurate.
- Public exposure of component endpoints requires protective measures.
- Security fixes are handled on a best-effort basis.
Alternatives to Elastic Observability Alternatives to Prometheus The whole list