Head to head
CubeAPM vs Grafana Cloud
Both platforms are scored with the same methodology and the same category rubric. Nothing on this page is influenced by advertising.
38/100 | 60/100Higher score | |
|---|---|---|
| Category rank | #11 | #1 |
| Confidence | Medium confidence | High confidence |
| External Reputation | 73 | 77 |
| AI Authority | 5 | 69 |
| Web Authority | 9 | 23 |
| Expert Assessment | 66 | 61 |
| TOP10 User Score | — | — |
| Pricing | $0.20/GB/month pay-as-you-go (Pro) — but vendor metadata and G2 listing both state $0.15/GB · free tier: None published; a self-serve sandbox exists at playground.cubeapm.com and every plan CTA is 'Book a Demo' | Pro from $19/month + usage (8x5 email support; 13-month metrics retention, 30 days logs/traces/profiles/k6) · free tier: Free, "always free": all Grafana Cloud services with limited usage, community support, 14-day retention for metrics, logs, traces, profiles and k6; includes 10k active metric series, 50 GB logs, 50 GB traces, 50 GB profiles, 50k RUM sessions, 100k API + 10k browser synthetic executions, 500 k6 virtual user hours, 3 active users |
| Pricing model | Usage-based (per GB ingested), sales-led | Freemium plus usage-based metering (platform fee + per-meter usage, with tiered volume discounts) |
| Best for | Backend-heavy, OpenTelemetry-instrumented engineering orgs running microservices and Kubernetes whose Datadog or New Relic bill has become a board-level line item, or who face data-residency and sovereignty constraints and have the infrastructure to host the platform in their own cloud. | Engineering-led teams already invested in Prometheus, OpenTelemetry, Loki or self-hosted Grafana who want the same stack managed without re-instrumenting, have at least one person fluent in PromQL/LogQL, and either fit the free tier's 14-day retention or want to tune each cost meter individually instead of paying per-host APM pricing. |
| Avoid if | Your primary need is mobile or browser/frontend monitoring, AIOps-grade automated RCA or LLM/token observability; you have no infrastructure or appetite to self-host (there is no SaaS option, free tier or self-serve checkout); or you require a deep public review history and a firm published price before committing. | You are thinly staffed or non-technical and need turnkey monitoring, need enterprise SSO/granular RBAC/a contractual SLA without justifying $25,000 a year, require 24/7 or phone support on a self-serve budget, need predictable flat-rate budgeting, or need long retention on a free or minimal plan. |
| Markets | Enterprise, Mid-Market, DevOps/SRE teams | Startups, SMB, Mid-Market, Enterprise, Public Sector / Federal |
| Founded | — | 2014 |
| Headquarters | — | New York, USA |
A higher TOP SCORE means more of the evidence favours that platform on this methodology — it is not a recommendation, and it does not account for your specific requirements. Advertisers are never declared the winner of a comparison.