There is no single cheapest hosted app-log search service for every small business: the answer depends on how many gigabytes you ingest each month, how long you need to retain them, and whether logs must connect to errors and traces. Based on published terms accessed October 7, 2026, Grafana Cloud, Better Stack, and Sentry Logs offer different starting points—but their included volumes and product scopes are not directly interchangeable.
Compare the bill for your workload, not just the entry price
Before choosing a service, estimate monthly log ingestion and set the minimum retention period your team needs. Then compare the relevant plan’s platform fee, included ingestion, overage rules, and any charges for processing, storage, indexing, queries, or host usage. A free tier may be useful for a pilot but still be a poor fit if it retains too little data for a later investigation.
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- Monthly volume: Estimate gigabytes ingested, including whether you will filter or sample logs before sending them.
- Retention: Choose a realistic number of days. A service’s included retention can matter more than its headline fee if you investigate incidents weeks later.
- Metering: Check which charges apply to the exact product and plan; providers do not all bill the same way.
- Search context: Decide whether you need general log exploration or links among logs, errors, traces, metrics, and alerts.
The published figures below are plan terms, not a calculated quote for a particular workload. They were accessed October 7, 2026, except Sentry’s dated changelog notice; confirm current terms and currency on the provider’s page before committing.
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| Service | Published entry terms | Included log volume and retention | Best reason to consider it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grafana Cloud | Always-free tier. Grafana Cloud Pro starts at $19/month plus usage, according to the current product page. | Grafana Cloud’s platform page lists 14 days of log retention on Free. Separately, the Application Observability Pro listing says its $19/month platform fee includes 50 GB ingested per month and 30-day retention. These are different product terms, not a universal Logs allowance. | A broad observability platform for a team willing to understand product-specific, usage-based billing. |
| Better Stack | Free for personal projects, according to the current pricing page. | 3 GB of logs retained for 3 days. | A small-volume trial when a three-day search window is enough to evaluate the service. |
| Sentry Logs | All plans include 5 GB of logs per month; the changelog lists additional volume at $0.50/GB. | 5 GB per month included; the cited notice lists overage pricing rather than a retention period. | A team that already uses Sentry and wants logs alongside errors and traces. |
Sources: Grafana Cloud pricing; Better Stack pricing; Sentry’s September 3, 2025 Logs announcement. Sentry’s listed rate should be checked against its current plan terms.
When Grafana Cloud is a sensible place to start
Grafana Cloud is the broadest fit among these options if you want logs as part of a larger observability setup and can track usage across the particular product you select. Its platform page lists 14-day log retention for Free, while its current Application Observability Pro listing describes a $19 monthly platform fee plus usage, with 50 GB of ingestion per month and 30-day retention included in that fee. Do not treat the latter as the price or allowance for every Grafana Cloud Logs configuration: product packaging and meters differ.
Review the specific service and its meter on the Grafana Cloud pricing page before estimating a bill. The free retention window may suit short-lived debugging, while investigations that routinely happen later may call for a longer-retention plan.
When Better Stack’s free tier is enough
Better Stack’s published free tier is for personal projects and includes 3 GB of logs retained for 3 days. That can be a practical way to try hosted search at very low volume, but it is not equivalent to a longer-term log archive. If a customer report or intermittent fault may arrive after several days, the retention window could expire before you can investigate.
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The pricing page bundles logs with other telemetry features, so assess the full tier rather than treating the log allowance as an isolated, unlimited service. See Better Stack’s pricing and free-tier terms.
When Sentry Logs makes more sense than standalone log search
Sentry is most relevant when your team already uses it for application errors and wants logs in that context. Its September 3, 2025 announcement says all plans include 5 GB of logs per month and lists $0.50/GB for additional volume. The announcement describes log views scoped to spans, traces, and errors, which may make correlated debugging more valuable than a standalone log-search tool for an existing Sentry user.
The cited notice does not establish a retention period, and the per-gigabyte figure is from a dated announcement. Check the current product terms before budgeting. See Sentry’s Logs announcement.
Choose by retention needs and existing tools
- You need only a short pilot: Better Stack’s 3 GB and 3-day free allowance may be enough to test collection and search, provided that brief retention suits your investigation window.
- You want logs within broader observability: Compare the exact Grafana Cloud product and meter you intend to use, not the platform’s different plan listings as if they were one offer.
- You already use Sentry for errors: Sentry Logs may reduce context-switching by keeping logs connected to error and trace views. Its published included volume is limited, and the cited announcement does not state retention.
- You have security, data-location, or support requirements: Verify those requirements directly against the specific plan and service. They are organization-specific selection criteria, not resolved by the listed entry prices.
Build a comparable estimate before signing up
- Estimate ingestion: Use a representative month of application logs and express it in GB. Note any filtering or sampling planned before upload.
- Set retention: Decide how long logs must remain searchable based on the time it takes your team to notice and investigate an issue.
- Identify the exact product: Distinguish a broad platform plan from a particular logs or application-observability product.
- Calculate the applicable charges: Include the platform fee, usage, overages, and any applicable processing, storage, host, indexing, or query charges stated for that product.
- Test the operational fit: Confirm integrations, team familiarity, search and correlation features, support expectations, and data-location requirements.
The published figures here do not establish an apples-to-apples total cost for a defined small-business workload. Without a monthly ingestion estimate, retention target, existing stack, and country or currency, declaring one service the cheapest would overstate what the plan pages show.
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