Last9 and CubeAPM both position themselves as modern observability platforms that prioritize OpenTelemetry compatibility and predictable pricing over the seat taxes and data sprawl common to legacy SaaS tools. Both claim to reduce monitoring costs by 60% or more compared to Datadog or New Relic. But the similarities end there. Last9 is a SaaS-only platform optimized for fast setup and low operational overhead. CubeAPM is a self-hosted, vendor-managed solution built for teams that require data sovereignty, compliance control, or on-premises deployment.
This comparison breaks down both platforms across pricing model, deployment flexibility, feature depth, and real production considerations. If you need to model observability costs before committing, the Datadog pricing calculator and New Relic pricing calculator help estimate what you would pay with incumbent SaaS tools.
Quick Comparison: Last9 vs CubeAPM at a Glance
| Feature | Last9 | CubeAPM |
|---|---|---|
| Deployment | SaaS only | Self-hosted (vendor-managed) |
| Pricing model | Usage-based, starts $200/mo | $0.15/GB ingestion-based |
| OpenTelemetry | Native support | Native support |
| APM traces | Yes | Yes |
| Logs | Yes | Yes, unlimited retention |
| Infrastructure monitoring | Yes | Yes, full Kubernetes visibility |
| RUM (Real User Monitoring) | No | Yes |
| Synthetic monitoring | No | Yes |
| Error tracking | Basic | Full stack traces, priority ranking |
| Data retention | Configurable, usage-billed | Unlimited at no extra cost |
| On-premises option | No | Yes, full on-prem and BYOC |
| Best for | SaaS-first teams, fast setup | Data-sovereign teams, regulated industries |
Last9 Overview
Last9 is a SaaS observability platform built on OpenTelemetry that covers APM, logs, and infrastructure monitoring. The platform emphasizes simplicity and speed to value, targeting engineering teams that want to migrate off Datadog or New Relic without managing self-hosted infrastructure.
Key features:
- Native OpenTelemetry support for metrics, logs, and traces
- Service-level objectives (SLOs) and incident management built in
- Integrations with Slack, PagerDuty, and major CI/CD tools
- Pricing starts at $200/month with usage-based scaling
What Last9 does well:
- Fast onboarding with minimal infrastructure setup
- Clear usage-based pricing without per-host or per-seat fees
- Native SLO tracking and alerting
- Built-in incident management workflow
What Last9 lacks:
- No on-premises or BYOC deployment option
- No Real User Monitoring (RUM) or synthetic monitoring
- Limited error tracking compared to dedicated APM platforms
- All telemetry data leaves your infrastructure and is stored externally
Last9 is best suited for cloud-first teams that prioritize ease of use and managed SaaS infrastructure over data residency or deployment control.
CubeAPM Overview
CubeAPM is a self-hosted, OpenTelemetry-native observability platform covering APM, logs, infrastructure, Kubernetes, RUM, synthetic monitoring, and error tracking. It runs inside your cloud or on-premises, so telemetry data never leaves your infrastructure.
Key features:
- Full-stack observability: APM, logs, infrastructure, Kubernetes, RUM, synthetics, error tracking
- Self-hosted and BYOC deployment with vendor-managed operations
- $0.15/GB predictable pricing with unlimited retention
- Native OpenTelemetry support, compatible with Datadog, New Relic, Prometheus agents
- SOC 2 and ISO 27001 certified
What CubeAPM does well:
- Complete data sovereignty with on-premises or BYOC deployment
- Unlimited data retention with no extra fees
- 4x faster dashboards compared to SaaS incumbents (documented by redBus)
- Direct engineering support via Slack and WhatsApp
- 70-75% cost savings at scale (documented by Delhivery, Mamaearth)
What CubeAPM lacks:
- Requires BYOC or on-prem infrastructure (not a turnkey SaaS)
- Autonomous anomaly detection less mature than Dynatrace or Datadog
- SSO and RBAC features less advanced than enterprise SaaS platforms
CubeAPM is best suited for teams that need data residency, compliance control, or on-premises deployment without the operational burden of managing raw ELK or Prometheus stacks.
Deployment and Data Residency
Last9: SaaS-only architecture
Last9 operates as a fully managed SaaS platform. All telemetry data is collected, processed, and stored on Last9’s cloud infrastructure. This means:
- Fast setup with no infrastructure to manage
- All monitoring remains available even if your infrastructure fails
- Telemetry data leaves your cloud and is stored externally
- No option for data residency or on-premises deployment
For teams in regulated industries (healthcare, fintech, government) or those with strict data residency requirements, Last9’s SaaS-only model may be a non-starter.
CubeAPM: Self-hosted with vendor-managed operations
CubeAPM deploys inside your VPC or data center. Your telemetry data never leaves your infrastructure. The platform is managed by CubeAPM’s team, meaning:
- No Day-2 operational burden (upgrades, patches, scaling handled by CubeAPM)
- Full compliance with SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, GDPR requirements
- No public cloud egress fees
- Monitoring stays up even if external SaaS platforms fail
Delhivery documented zero downtime during their migration to CubeAPM’s self-hosted deployment. Mamaearth completed their migration in under one hour without service interruption.
Feature-by-Feature Comparison
APM and distributed tracing
Both platforms provide full distributed tracing with service maps, latency breakdowns, and error correlation.
Last9:
- OpenTelemetry-native trace ingestion
- Service-level latency and error tracking
- Basic trace sampling to control costs
CubeAPM:
- OpenTelemetry-native with AI-based smart sampling
- Retains high-value traces (errors, slow transactions) while reducing storage overhead by up to 95%
- Full trace fidelity with no blind spots during incidents
- Documented by redBus: 4x faster trace search and dashboards
CubeAPM’s smart sampling addresses a common pain point: traditional head-based sampling drops the most important traces during incidents when traffic patterns change suddenly.
Log management
Last9:
- Centralized log ingestion from multiple sources
- Configurable retention periods (usage-billed)
- Basic log search and filtering
CubeAPM:
- Native compatibility with Logstash, FluentBit, Elastic, OpenTelemetry
- Unlimited log retention at no extra cost
- Fast full-text search with automatic indexing
- Logs automatically correlated with traces for faster root cause analysis
Practo reduced log investigation time by 50% after switching to CubeAPM’s contextual dashboards with service-level filters. Redbus scaled log ingestion to 15TB+ monthly with zero performance degradation using CubeAPM’s flat pricing model.
Infrastructure and Kubernetes monitoring
Last9:
- Host and container monitoring
- Kubernetes metrics collection
- Basic alerting on resource thresholds
CubeAPM:
- Full Kubernetes visibility: cluster, node, pod, container, and control plane metrics
- Monitors Kubernetes events alongside metrics for complete context
- Tracks OOMKills, pod evictions, HPA scaling, and node pressure
- Documented by Delhivery: 45% improvement in Kubernetes incident resolution time
Kubernetes monitoring platforms require more than host-level metrics to diagnose container orchestration issues. CubeAPM correlates Kubernetes events with resource metrics to surface what changed and why.
Real User Monitoring (RUM)
Last9: Not available.
CubeAPM: Full RUM with:
- Page load tracking across browsers, devices, and geographies
- AJAX API call monitoring with latency and failure rates
- Core Web Vitals tracking (LCP, FID, CLS)
- Session replay for reproducing user issues
Mamaearth improved checkout page load speed by 35%, boosting conversions by 12% after using CubeAPM RUM insights. Cleartax reduced failed API calls by 42% by identifying latency bottlenecks through CubeAPM RUM.
Synthetic monitoring
Last9: Not available.
CubeAPM: Full synthetic monitoring with:
- Browser-based transaction tests (logins, checkouts, multi-step flows)
- API endpoint monitoring with success code validation
- Multi-location testing from 50+ global endpoints
- High-frequency checks (every 1-5 minutes)
Redbus identified a 200ms latency spike in Southeast Asia using CubeAPM synthetic tests and resolved it within hours, improving booking completion rates by 9%.
Error tracking
Last9: Basic error aggregation with alert routing.
CubeAPM: Full error tracking with:
- Unified error inbox for JavaScript, API, and backend errors
- Full stack traces and contextual metadata
- Error prioritization by frequency and business impact
- Real time alerts routed to Slack, Teams, PagerDuty
Delhivery reduced troubleshooting time by 30% after consolidating all service errors into CubeAPM’s unified error inbox. Redbus reduced customer-reported errors by 40% after enabling CubeAPM’s real time error alerting.
Alerting and incident management
Last9:
- Native SLO-based alerting
- Built-in incident management workflow
- Integrations with Slack, PagerDuty, and major on-call tools
CubeAPM:
- Alert on any metric, log, trace, or error with anomaly detection
- Contextual alerts tied to related telemetry for faster triage
- Route alerts to Slack, PagerDuty, email with full trace context
Cleartax cut alert noise by 50% using CubeAPM’s anomaly detection and contextual alerting. Both platforms offer strong alerting, but Last9’s incident management workflow is more mature out of the box.
Pricing Comparison
Last9 pricing model
Last9 uses usage-based pricing starting at $200/month. The exact cost depends on data volume, retention period, and feature usage. Pricing details beyond the entry tier are not publicly available and require a sales conversation.
Pricing based on publicly available information as of early 2026. Enterprise discounts and negotiated rates are not reflected here.
CubeAPM pricing model
CubeAPM charges $0.15/GB for all ingested data with no separate fees for logs, metrics, traces, or retention. Infrastructure cost (compute + storage) adds approximately $0.02/GB when running in your own cloud.
Example cost scenario for a mid-market team:
- 30TB monthly ingestion (20TB logs, 7TB traces, 3TB metrics)
- 100 hosts
- 30-day retention across all signal types
CubeAPM total cost: $5,100/month ($0.15/GB × 30TB + $0.02/GB infra)
This estimate models a production-ready setup with high availability. A smaller or simpler deployment may cost significantly less.
For comparison, the same workload on Datadog would cost approximately $27,475/month based on per-host APM fees, log indexing, and metric cardinality charges. Teams documented 64-75% savings after switching to CubeAPM.
Migration and Integration
Migrating from Last9
Last9 uses OpenTelemetry-native ingestion, so migration to another OTel-compatible platform is straightforward:
- Update OpenTelemetry Collector endpoints to point to the new platform
- Reconfigure dashboards and alerts in the new platform
- Gradually shift traffic from Last9 to the new backend
Expected timeline: 1-2 weeks for a mid-sized deployment.
Migrating to CubeAPM
CubeAPM supports incremental migration with zero downtime:
- Deploy CubeAPM in your VPC or on-premises
- Configure dual-write: send telemetry to both existing tool and CubeAPM
- Validate dashboards and alerts in CubeAPM
- Cut over service by service
Mamaearth completed migration in under one hour with zero downtime. Cleartax migrated from Datadog in under 60 minutes and immediately saw faster error resolution.
Who Should Choose Each Platform
Choose Last9 if:
- You want fully managed SaaS with no infrastructure to maintain
- Data residency is not a compliance requirement
- You do not need RUM or synthetic monitoring
- Your team prioritizes fast setup over deployment control
- Built-in incident management workflow is important
Choose CubeAPM if:
- Data sovereignty or compliance requires on-premises deployment
- You need full-stack observability including RUM and synthetics
- Unlimited retention without extra cost is critical
- Your team wants predictable pricing without surprise overages
- You need 70%+ cost savings compared to Datadog or New Relic
Verdict
Last9 and CubeAPM solve different problems for different team profiles.
Last9 is a strong choice for SaaS-first teams that want to migrate off Datadog or New Relic without managing infrastructure. Its SLO-based alerting and built-in incident management make it attractive for cloud-native startups and mid-market companies without strict data residency requirements.
CubeAPM is the better choice for teams that need data sovereignty, on-premises deployment, or feature completeness including RUM, synthetics, and error tracking. Its $0.15/GB pricing with unlimited retention delivers 70-75% savings at scale, and its self-hosted deployment model keeps telemetry data inside your infrastructure.
If compliance, cost predictability, or deployment control matter more than managed SaaS convenience, CubeAPM is the clearer fit. If you want zero operational burden and SaaS-first simplicity, Last9 is worth evaluating.
Disclaimer: The information in this article reflects the latest details available at the time of publication and may change as technologies and products evolve. Features, pricing, and plan limits can change over time. Always verify the latest information directly with the vendor before making purchasing or deployment decisions.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does Last9 pricing compare to CubeAPM at scale?
Last9 uses usage-based pricing starting at $200/month, with exact costs varying by data volume and retention. CubeAPM charges $0.15/GB for all ingested data with unlimited retention. For a 30TB/month workload, CubeAPM costs approximately $5,100/month while Last9 pricing requires a sales conversation.
Can CubeAPM run fully on-premises?
Yes. CubeAPM deploys inside your VPC or data center with vendor-managed operations. Telemetry data never leaves your infrastructure, meeting SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, and GDPR requirements.
Does Last9 support Real User Monitoring?
No. Last9 focuses on APM, logs, and infrastructure monitoring. CubeAPM includes full RUM with page load tracking, Core Web Vitals, and session replay.
How long does migration to CubeAPM take?
Mamaearth completed migration in under one hour. Cleartax migrated from Datadog in under 60 minutes. CubeAPM supports incremental migration with zero downtime using dual-write configuration.
Which platform has better Kubernetes monitoring?
CubeAPM provides deeper Kubernetes visibility with cluster, node, pod, and control plane metrics correlated with Kubernetes events. Delhivery documented 45% improvement in Kubernetes incident resolution time after switching to CubeAPM.
Does CubeAPM support OpenTelemetry natively?
Yes. CubeAPM is OpenTelemetry-native from day one and also supports Datadog, New Relic, Prometheus, and Elastic agents for incremental migration.
What is the main difference between Last9 and CubeAPM?
Last9 is a fully managed SaaS platform optimized for fast setup. CubeAPM is a self-hosted platform optimized for data sovereignty, compliance, and cost predictability with on-premises deployment.