---
title: 'Logfire vs SigNoz: Observability That Just Works'
description: >-
  Compare Logfire and SigNoz. See why teams choose Logfire for managed
  observability with AI-first features and zero infrastructure to manage.
canonical: 'https://pydantic.dev/logfire/vs-signoz'
last-reviewed: '2026-08-20'
---
> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://pydantic.dev/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

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---


> Markdown version of [Logfire vs SigNoz](https://pydantic.dev/logfire/vs-signoz) — the canonical HTML page.
>
> Site index: [/llms.txt](https://pydantic.dev/llms.txt)

---

# Logfire vs SigNoz

SigNoz offers a broad OpenTelemetry stack in managed cloud and self-hosted forms. Logfire is the direct path from application code to correlated full-stack and AI telemetry, with evaluation and improvement workflows built into the same product.

[Try Logfire free](https://pydantic.dev/signup)

## Quick comparison

_Logfire and SigNoz compared feature by feature_

| Feature | Logfire | SigNoz |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Platform | Managed SaaS | Managed Teams Cloud or self-hosted Community Edition |
| Setup | 3 statements for a Python AI setup | Configure OTel SDKs and exporters; collectors where needed |
| AI/LLM Support | Native, one function call + eval loop | gen_ai spans over OTel; no eval loop |
| SDKs | First-class Python, JS, Rust | OpenTelemetry SDKs across languages |
| Maintenance | Managed service | Cloud backend managed; Community Edition self-managed |
| Cloud pricing | Personal: 10M records free; Team: $49/month + $2/M over 10M | Teams Cloud $49 + usage |
| Infrastructure Metrics | Full-stack (host metrics, traces & logs) | Full-stack (including Prometheus-style) |

## Why teams choose Logfire

### Managed cloud, differentiated by workflow

SigNoz Teams Cloud manages its backend, while Community Edition gives you control of ClickHouse, upgrades, scaling, and availability. Logfire's advantage is the product workflow: common application integrations, PostgreSQL-compatible SQL, evaluations, and improvement tools in one managed service, without choosing or operating an observability backend.

### Developer velocity

Logfire setup for a Python AI application is three statements: import logfire; logfire.configure(); logfire.instrument_openai(). SigNoz Teams Cloud removes backend operations, but applications still use OpenTelemetry SDK and exporter configuration and some data sources need a collector. Logfire turns the most common Python integrations into one function call each and keeps that configuration in the application.

### First-class AI support

SigNoz ingests gen_ai spans over OpenTelemetry and shows agent traces with token and cost data, so it does have LLM observability. What it does not have is the AI-engineering loop: evals, a prompt optimizer, and managed config. Logfire adds that on top of the same OTel-native tracing, with purpose-built LLM panels for conversations and tool calls and automatic token and cost tracking.

### Cloud pricing, without a fake self-hosted estimate

The pricing table compares managed cloud products only. SigNoz Teams Cloud starts at $49, then meters trace bytes at $0.30/GB for 15 days, $0.40/GB for 30 days, or $0.60/GB for 90 days. Logfire Team starts at $49, includes 10 million records and 30-day retention, then charges $2 per million records; Growth supports up to 90 days. Because bytes do not reveal record count, the disclosure shows SigNoz's exact retention-sensitive totals without inventing a Logfire equivalent.

## Which should you choose?

### Choose Logfire if...

- You want observability in minutes, not weeks
- You don't want to maintain monitoring infrastructure
- You're building AI applications and need first-class AI observability
- You want three lines of code, not a deployment project
- You prefer to focus on your app, not your monitoring stack

### Choose SigNoz if...

- You must self-host for strict data residency requirements
- You have a DevOps team ready to manage the stack
- You want full control and customization of your observability infrastructure

## See Logfire on your own telemetry

Start free with 10 million spans, logs, and metrics each month. No credit card required.

[Start free](https://pydantic.dev/signup) · [Book a demo](https://pydantic.dev/contact)

## Retention changes the byte price

_Worked SigNoz Teams Cloud pricing examples across comparable retention periods_

| Illustrative monthly workload | Logfire | SigNoz |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 100 GB traces/month | 30 days on Team; up to 90 days on Growth; billed by records | $49 (15/30 days) · $60 (90 days) |
| 1 TB traces/month | 30 days on Team; up to 90 days on Growth; billed by records | $300 (15 days) · $400 (30 days) · $600 (90 days) |
| 864M metric samples/month | 30 days on Team; up to 90 days on Growth; billed by records | $86.40 (1 month) · $103.68 (3 months) |

### Exact pricing math and sources

SigNoz Teams Cloud list-price calculations at its published 15-, 30-, and 90-day trace-retention rates and 1- and 3-month metric-retention rates. No Logfire total is claimed because a GB or sample count does not reveal how many Logfire records the workload creates.

**Basis:** USD; public monthly list price. Prices checked 2026-08-20.

#### Published inputs

- **Logfire Team base:** $49/month — [Pydantic Logfire source](https://pydantic.dev/pricing)
- **Logfire included telemetry:** 10,000,000 records/month — [Pydantic Logfire source](https://pydantic.dev/pricing)
- **Logfire additional telemetry:** $2 per 1,000,000 records — [Pydantic Logfire source](https://pydantic.dev/pricing)
- **SigNoz Teams Cloud base:** $49/month — [SigNoz source](https://signoz.io/pricing/)
- **SigNoz included usage value:** $49/month — [SigNoz source](https://signoz.io/pricing/)
- **SigNoz traces, 15-day retention:** $0.30/GB — [SigNoz source](https://signoz.io/pricing/)
- **SigNoz traces, 30-day retention:** $0.40/GB — [SigNoz source](https://signoz.io/pricing/)
- **SigNoz traces, 90-day retention:** $0.60/GB — [SigNoz source](https://signoz.io/pricing/)
- **SigNoz metrics, 1-month retention:** $0.10/million samples — [SigNoz source](https://signoz.io/pricing/)
- **SigNoz metrics, 3-month retention:** $0.12/million samples — [SigNoz source](https://signoz.io/pricing/)

#### Assumptions

- **Teams Cloud minimum:** max($49, metered usage) — The $49 monthly price includes $49 of any mix of logs, traces, and metrics; only usage beyond that value is additional. ([SigNoz source](https://signoz.io/pricing/))
- **Gigabyte:** 1 GB = 1,000,000,000 bytes — SigNoz's billing API calculates log and span volume in decimal gigabytes.
- **Compared deployment:** Managed cloud only — Community Edition is a separate self-managed deployment, so the model does not assign it a synthetic monthly cost.
- **Retention:** Shown beside every total — SigNoz changes its byte and sample rates when retention changes; the headline rates use 15 days for traces and one month for metrics. ([SigNoz source](https://signoz.io/pricing/), [SigNoz source](https://signoz.io/docs/userguide/retention-period/))

#### Calculations

##### 100 GB of traces per month

The Teams Cloud minimum absorbs 100 GB at both 15 and 30 days; 90-day retention raises metered usage to $60.

**SigNoz · 15 days: $49**

1. Trace usage: `100 GB × $0.30/GB` = **$30**
1. Teams Cloud minimum: `max($49 included usage, $30 metered usage)` = **$49**

**SigNoz · 30 days: $49**

1. Trace usage: `100 GB × $0.40/GB` = **$40**
1. Teams Cloud minimum: `max($49 included usage, $40 metered usage)` = **$49**

**SigNoz · 90 days: $60**

1. Trace usage: `100 GB × $0.60/GB` = **$60**
1. Teams Cloud minimum: `max($49 included usage, $60 metered usage)` = **$60**

##### 1 TB of traces per month

At 1,000 decimal GB, the published retention tiers produce materially different totals.

**SigNoz · 15 days: $300**

1. Trace usage: `1,000 GB × $0.30/GB` = **$300**
1. Teams Cloud minimum: `max($49 included usage, $300 metered usage)` = **$300**

**SigNoz · 30 days: $400**

1. Trace usage: `1,000 GB × $0.40/GB` = **$400**
1. Teams Cloud minimum: `max($49 included usage, $400 metered usage)` = **$400**

**SigNoz · 90 days: $600**

1. Trace usage: `1,000 GB × $0.60/GB` = **$600**
1. Teams Cloud minimum: `max($49 included usage, $600 metered usage)` = **$600**

##### SigNoz's 864-million-sample metrics example

The vendor models 10,000 time series reporting every 30 seconds for a 30-day month; three-month retention raises the sample rate.

**SigNoz · 1 month: $86.40**

1. Monthly samples: `10,000 series × 2 samples/min × 60 × 24 × 30` = **864M samples**
1. Monthly total: `max($49 included usage, 864M × $0.10/M)` = **$86.40**

**SigNoz · 3 months: $103.68**

1. Monthly samples: `10,000 series × 2 samples/min × 60 × 24 × 30` = **864M samples**
1. Monthly total: `max($49 included usage, 864M × $0.12/M)` = **$103.68**

#### Source ledger

- [**Pydantic Logfire — Pricing and plans for Pydantic Logfire**](https://pydantic.dev/pricing) — official vendor source; checked 2026-08-20. “Covers 10 million logs, spans, and metrics every month.” The official calculator shows 20 million records and no extra seats totaling $69/month on Team.
- [**SigNoz — SigNoz pricing and calculator**](https://signoz.io/pricing/) — official vendor source; checked 2026-08-20. “Usage worth $49 (e.g. 163 GB logs/traces or 490 mn metric samples)” SigNoz's own worked example prices 10,000 time series at a 30-second interval as 864 million samples and $86.40/month.
- [**SigNoz — Configure retention periods for logs, traces and metrics**](https://signoz.io/docs/userguide/retention-period/) — official vendor source; checked 2026-08-20. “Retention changes affect pricing.” SigNoz Cloud offers 15-, 30-, 90-, 180-, and 365-day trace retention and 1-, 3-, 6-, and 13-month metric retention.

#### What this calculation does not include

- The worked totals are SigNoz-only calculations, not equivalent Logfire workloads; record count cannot be recovered from byte or sample volume.
- SigNoz's headline $0.30/GB trace rate includes 15-day retention. The 30- and 90-day totals use the higher rates exposed by its official calculator.
- Logfire Team includes 30-day retention and Growth supports up to 90 days, but no Logfire total is manufactured from a byte or sample count.
- Community Edition is a separate self-managed deployment and is outside this cloud-pricing comparison.
- Taxes, discounts, support contracts, and other enterprise terms are excluded.

## Common questions

### Does this pricing comparison include SigNoz Community Edition?

No. The table compares Logfire Cloud with SigNoz Teams Cloud, which starts at $49 a month and then meters traces and logs by gigabyte and metrics by sample. Community Edition is a separate self-managed deployment, so we do not assign it an invented monthly price.

### How is setup different?

Logfire's Python setup is three statements: import logfire; logfire.configure(); logfire.instrument_openai(). SigNoz Teams Cloud manages its backend, while your applications still need OpenTelemetry SDK and exporter configuration, plus a collector where the data source requires one. Logfire's common Python integrations configure that telemetry path directly from application code.

### Can I use Logfire SDK with SigNoz?

Yes! The Logfire SDK can send data to any OpenTelemetry-compatible backend, including SigNoz. If you like our SDK's simplicity but want to run your own backend, you can use the Logfire SDK with SigNoz's backend.

### Does Logfire support infrastructure metrics?

Yes. Logfire supports infrastructure monitoring alongside AI and application observability: collect logs and host metrics from Kubernetes, hosts, and databases, then correlate them with application traces. SigNoz may still be a fit if you need a self-managed observability stack.

### What about AI/LLM observability?

SigNoz ingests gen_ai spans over OpenTelemetry and renders agent traces with token and cost data, so it does have LLM observability. What it lacks is the AI-engineering loop: no evals, no prompt optimizer, no managed config. Logfire has that loop plus purpose-built LLM panels, and one function call instruments OpenAI, Anthropic, LangChain, and more with automatic token tracking.

## Ready to switch from SigNoz?

Get started with 10 million free spans, logs, and metrics per month. No credit card required.

[Start free](https://pydantic.dev/signup) — [View pricing](https://pydantic.dev/pricing)

---

See also: [Logfire alternatives](https://pydantic.dev/logfire/alternatives) ([markdown](https://pydantic.dev/logfire/alternatives.md)), [Pydantic Logfire](https://pydantic.dev/logfire), and [pricing](https://pydantic.dev/pricing).