The main difference between SigNoz, Uptrace, and CubeAPM is that SigNoz and Uptrace focus on OpenTelemetry-native observability, while CubeAPM provides, enterprise-grade observability platform with predictable pricing.

SigNoz and Uptrace are solid OpenTelemetry-native tools, but managing backends like ClickHouse adds operational overhead, such as scaling, replication, and tuning work when self-hosting. CubeAPM addresses this with an OpenTelemetry-native platform that unifies metrics, logs, and traces in a single backend, runs inside your VPC, and uses predictable pricing.

In this article, we compare SigNoz, Uptrace, and CubeAPM to highlight key differences in scope, complexity, and cost.

SigNoz vs Uptrace vs CubeAPM: Feature-By-Feature Comparison

Features	CubeAPM	SigNoz	Uptrace
Known for	Unified native OpenTelemetry and predictable pricing.	Open-source, OpenTelemetry-native observability	Lightweight, OpenTelemetry-based APM.
Multi-Agent Support	Yes (OTel, New Relic, Datadog, Elastic)	Partial (OTel)	Partial(OTel)
MELT Support	Full MELT	Full MELT	Full MELT
Setup	Self-hosted but vendor-managed	SaaS & Self-hosted	SaaS & Self-hosted
Pricing	Ingestion-based pricing of $0.15/GB	Logs: $0.3/GB Traces: $0.3/GB Metrics: $0.1/mil samples	Free: 1TB storage Traces: $0.10/GB
Sampling Strategy	Smart sampling	Head + Tail-based	Head + Tail-based
Log Retention	Infinite Retention	Logs: 15 days  Metrics: 1 month	Custom: 14 days
Support TAT	Within minutes	No details	No details

SigNoz vs Uptrace vs CubeAPM: Feature-by-Feature Breakdown

Known For

CubeAPM: CubeAPM is recognised for its fully OpenTelemetry-native architecture that brings metrics, events, logs, and traces together with predictable ingestion pricing and unlimited retention. 

SigNoz: SigNoz is best known for its open-source foundation and focus on trace and metric analytics powered by ClickHouse. It resonates with engineering teams looking for a cost-effective alternative to commercial SaaS observability.

Uptrace: Uptrace is known for its streamlined OpenTelemetry tracing engine and cost-efficient data ingestion model. It appeals to developers and teams who want a simple but powerful way to monitor distributed systems.

Multi-Agent Support

CubeAPM: CubeAPM supports a broad range of agents, including Datadog Agent, New Relic Agent, Elastic Agent, Prometheus exporters, and OpenTelemetry SDKs. This means teams moving from legacy observability stacks or hybrid telemetry environments can migrate without rewriting instrumentation. 

SigNoz: Primarily relies on OpenTelemetry for ingesting traces, metrics, and logs. It accepts Fluent Bit, Fluentd, Logstash, Vector, Jaeger, and Zipkin through the OTel Collector, but does not maintain multiple vendor agents like New Relic.

Uptrace: Supports OpenTelemetry, providing a flexible, vendor-neutral way to ingest telemetry data. However, it does not offer true multi-agent support for third-party APM agents, such as New Relic or Datadog.

MELT Support (Metrics, Events, Logs, Traces)

CubeAPM: Delivers complete MELT visibility with one backend powering logs, metrics, traces, and infrastructure events. This helps DevOps and SRE teams diagnose issues across microservices, Kubernetes clusters, and distributed systems without switching between tools. 

SigNoz: Supports metrics, logs, and traces through OpenTelemetry, with built-in APM views, dashboards, and alerts that allow teams to correlate telemetry data in one platform.

Uptrace: Supports metrics, logs, and traces via OpenTelemetry and ClickHouse, providing unified dashboards and alerting for core observability use cases.

Deployment and Setup

CubeAPM: CubeAPM runs fully inside the customer’s cloud or on-prem environment. Teams with data-residency requirements benefit from having complete control without the day-to-day burden of managing observability infrastructure.

SigNoz: Offers both SaaS and self-hosted options, but self-hosted deployments require managing ClickHouse and related components, which can add operational overhead.

Uptrace: Supports both SaaS and self-hosted deployments, with self-hosted setups involving ClickHouse and collector management that can increase operational complexity.

Pricing: Approximate Cost for Small, Medium, and Large Teams

*All pricing comparisons are calculated using standardized Small/Medium/Large team profiles defined in our internal benchmarking sheet, based on fixed log, metrics, trace, and retention assumptions. Actual pricing may vary by usage, region, and plan structure. Please confirm current pricing with each vendor.

*An APM host is a host that is actively generating trace data, and an Infra host is any physical or virtual OS instance that you monitor with any observability tool.

Approx. Cost for Teams	Small(~30 APM Hosts)	Mid-sized(~125 APM Hosts)	Large(~250 APM Hosts)
CubeAPM	$2,080	$7,200	$15,200
SigNoz	$4,600	$16,000	$34,000
Uptrace	$1,695	$5,600	$12,500

CubeAPM: Cost for Small, Medium, and Large Teams

CubeAPM uses an all-inclusive ingestion-based pricing model where teams are billed at a flat $0.15 per GB across logs, metrics, and traces. Based on typical ingestion patterns seen in growing engineering teams, the approximate annual cost for different team sizes is:

• Small teams (~30): $2,080
  
• Mid-sized teams (~125): $7,200
  
• Large teams (~250): $15,200

This predictable structure is well-suited for SaaS companies, digital platforms, and enterprise environments that process large amounts of observability data each month. 

SigNoz: Cost for Small, Medium, and Large Teams

SigNoz follows a usage-based cloud pricing model, combining a monthly platform fee with per-GB charges for logs and traces. Here is the pricing:

• Teams: $49/month
• Logs:$0.3/GB ingested
• Traces: $0.3/GB ingested
• Metrics: $0.1/mil samples

Using typical telemetry volumes for different team sizes, the estimated monthly costs are:

• Small teams (~30): $4,600
  
• Mid-sized teams (~125): $16,000
  
• Large teams (~250): $34,000

SigNoz works best for engineering-focused teams who embrace open-source tooling and generate controlled telemetry volumes. For organizations with huge data volumes and large microservice environments, costs tend to rise faster than fixed-pricing models like CubeAPM.

Uptrace: Cost for Small, Medium, and Large Teams

Uptrace prices its hosted edition based on uncompressed data ingestion for traces, logs, and metrics. Based on typical deployment sizes, approximate costs are:

• Small teams (~30): $1,695
  
• Mid-sized teams (~125): $5,600
  
• Large teams (~250): $12,500

Uptrace is a good fit for teams looking for an OpenTelemetry-native experience with simple ingestion billing, but as log, trace, and metrics volume increases, it often results in higher costs.

5. Sampling Strategy

CubeAPM: CubeAPM uses an advanced smart-sampling mechanism that compresses up to 95% of traffic while retaining high-value traces related to latency, errors, or anomalies. This approach helps high-traffic platforms maintain detailed observability without ballooning storage or ingestion costs.

SigNoz: Supports both head-based and tail-based sampling through OpenTelemetry, allowing teams to control trace volume either at the application level or after traces are collected. This flexibility helps reduce ingestion costs while still retaining high-value traces for debugging and performance analysis.

Uptrace: Supports both head-based and tail-based sampling through OpenTelemetry, enabling teams to sample traces either at the application level or in the collector based on defined rules. This helps control data volume while preserving important traces for analysis.

5. Data Retention

CubeAPM: CubeAPM offers unlimited data retention because all telemetry is stored within the customer’s environment rather than in a remote SaaS cloud. This setup supports long-term audits, detailed performance baselines, and compliance requirements without paying premium storage fees.

SigNoz: SigNoz allows configurable retention periods of 15 days for logs and 30 days for metrics. It works well for teams that need moderate-term retention for debugging, though scaling to multi-month or multi-year retention may raise costs and complexity.

Uptrace: Uptrace provides variable retention depending on whether teams use the hosted or self-hosted deployment. Self-hosted customers can keep data longer if they manage storage themselves, while hosted plans have a custom retention of 14 days. 

6. Support Channels and Response Times

CubeAPM: CubeAPM offers real-time communication channels, including Slack and WhatsApp, connecting teams directly with core engineers for rapid assistance. The response times typically fall within minutes, which is valuable during production incidents or critical outages. 

SigNoz: SigNoz provides support through Slack, email, and its community channels for issue resolution, but it does not publicly specify guaranteed response times or SLAs for support requests.

Uptrace: Offers support primarily through email, documentation, and community channels, but it does not publicly list defined support response times or formal SLAs.

Which Tool Is Best for You? Why Teams Gravitate Toward CubeAPM

Every observability platform has a sweet spot. SigNoz appeals to engineering teams that want full open-source ownership and hands-on control. Better Stack fits teams focused on uptime, clean dashboards, and incident-response workflows. But if your priority is end-to-end observability, predictable long-term costs, and complete OpenTelemetry coverage, CubeAPM becomes the most strategic choice.

Why Teams Choose CubeAPM

• Unified Observability Stack: One platform for APM, infrastructure metrics, logs, Real User Monitoring, and synthetic checks, no fragmented tools or extra modules.
  
• Predictable Ingestion Pricing: A clear $0.15/GB model with no per-seat, per-host, or hidden add-on charges, making long-term scaling simple and transparent.
  
• Unlimited Retention Options: Self-hosted or BYOC deployments allow you to retain logs and traces indefinitely, supporting compliance, audits, and historical analysis.
  
• Multi-Agent Interoperability: Fully compatible with OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, Datadog, Elastic, New Relic, and other agents, making migration frictionless.
  
• Smart Sampling & Noise Reduction: Automatically preserves high-value traces while compressing repetitive workload.
  
• Flexible Deployment Models: Run CubeAPM as SaaS, in your own cloud, or fully self-hosted to maintain total control over data residency and compliance.
  
• Direct API Access: Expose metrics, traces, logs, dashboards, and alert configurations through robust APIs, ideal for automation, CI/CD workflows, and integrating observability data into internal platforms.

If your goal is a modern, scalable, OpenTelemetry-native observability experience without unpredictable bills, CubeAPM is the clear winner.

SigNoz vs Uptrace vs CubePM: Use Cases

Choose CubeAPM if:

• You need a complete MELT platform (Metrics, Events, Logs, Traces) with the option to run inside your own cloud for full data control.
  
• Long-term unlimited retention, strong compliance guarantees, and full data ownership matter to you.
  
• You prefer predictable pricing that scales cleanly with telemetry ($0.15/GB ingestion).
  
• You rely on Kubernetes, microservices, or multi-agent setups (OTel, Prometheus, Datadog, Elastic, NR), and want seamless compatibility.
  
• Real-time engineering-led support and rapid incident response are critical for your team.

Choose Uptrace if:

• Your main focus is performance monitoring for distributed systems, instrumented with OpenTelemetry.
  
• You want a lightweight deployment that’s easy to run.
  
• Predictable ingestion-based pricing is important to your budgeting.
  
• You prefer a tool that unifies traces + metrics without requiring complex configuration.

Choose SigNoz if:

• You want an open-source observability stack with full transparency and community-driven flexibility.
  
• Cost control is a priority, and you prefer avoiding vendor lock-in.
  
• You have the engineering capacity to manage ClickHouse storage, scaling, and upgrades for the self-hosted option.
  
• You’re a startup or growing team looking for a simple, accessible approach to metrics and tracing.

Conclusion

SigNoz, Uptrace, and CubeAPM represent three different approaches to observability. SigNoz emphasizes open-source flexibility and cost-effective tracing, while Uptrace provides a lightweight OpenTelemetry-first platform for distributed systems. CubeAPM offers the most complete MELT experience with unlimited retention, self-hosted deployment, multi-agent compatibility, and predictable cost scaling. For organisations seeking unified observability without hidden fees or complex multi-tool maintenance, CubeAPM stands out as the most capable and compliance-friendly option.

Disclaimer: The information in this article reflects the latest details available at the time of publication and may change as technologies and products evolve.

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