10 Best Jaeger Alternatives & Competitors (2026)

Elastic Observability combines Elasticsearch, APM, and logs with strong search capabilities. Managing separate clusters and licensing can become complex at scale. SigNoz delivers comparable correlation of signals using ClickHouse, simpler OTel-native pipelines, and usage-based pricing without Elasticsearch cluster overhead.

Datadog is a proprietary full-stack observability SaaS with APM, logs, traces, and infrastructure monitoring. Its strength lies in polished dashboards and 500+ integrations, yet teams often migrate because of unpredictable per-host and per-container pricing plus reliance on proprietary agents. SigNoz matches the unified observability experience with native OpenTelemetry instrumentation, correlated signals, and ClickHouse-backed queries while offering self-hosting and usage-based pricing that removes host-based scaling costs.

New Relic provides APM, distributed tracing, and logs with a strong focus on entity-centric views and error tracking. Its pricing model charges by data ingest and users, and OpenTelemetry support remains partial. SigNoz delivers comparable end-to-end tracing and dashboards with full OTel semantic conventions, no user seats, and the option to run entirely on your infrastructure or their cloud at lower predictable cost.

Splunk excels at log analytics and security use cases with powerful search, but carries high per-GB licensing and limited native tracing. SigNoz gives teams integrated APM and traces alongside logs at a fraction of the ingest cost, using OpenTelemetry standards and columnar storage instead of Splunk's proprietary engine.

Grafana combined with Loki, Tempo, and Prometheus offers open-source visualization and time-series monitoring. It requires stitching multiple tools for full traces-logs-metrics correlation. SigNoz provides the same open-source foundation plus a single unified UI, native OTel pipelines, and ClickHouse storage that simplifies high-scale ingestion without managing separate datastores.

Dynatrace uses AI-driven automation for enterprise observability and full-stack monitoring. Its closed ecosystem and per-host or consumption pricing create lock-in. SigNoz offers similar automated discovery and alerting through open standards, self-host flexibility, and transparent usage pricing without forcing proprietary agents.

Honeycomb specializes in high-cardinality observability and distributed tracing with a strong query builder. It remains cloud-only and usage-priced. SigNoz matches the tracing depth and adds logs/metrics in one platform, self-hosting, and lower-cost storage via ClickHouse for teams that want to avoid another SaaS bill.

AppDynamics focuses on business-transaction monitoring and enterprise APM with deep code-level insights. Its licensing is typically per-agent and expensive. SigNoz provides equivalent transaction tracing and error monitoring through open standards, self-host options, and no per-agent fees, appealing to cost-conscious engineering teams.

Sentry is popular for error tracking and session replays with developer-friendly workflows. It covers only part of the observability stack. SigNoz adds full distributed tracing, metrics, and logs in the same OpenTelemetry-native platform while keeping error monitoring and alerts without separate tool sprawl.