Self-host openobserve
v1.2.0-rc1Unified observability for logs, metrics, traces, and RUM
- Stars
- 22 973
- Ports
- 5080 (HTTP API and web UI), 5081 (gRPC API)
public.ecr.aws/zinclabs/openobserve
What is openobserve?
This cloud-native observability platform built in Rust combines logs, metrics, traces, Real User Monitoring, session replay, dashboards, alerts, incidents, data pipelines, and AI/LLM observability into one product. It uses Parquet columnar storage with an S3-native architecture to achieve dramatically lower storage costs compared to Elasticsearch. The platform supports both single-node deployments using SQLite and local disk or object storage, and high-availability clustered deployments on Kubernetes with NATS, PostgreSQL, and object storage. It natively ingests OpenTelemetry data and queries logs and traces with SQL and metrics with PromQL. The open-source edition is AGPL-3.0 licensed and feature-complete for production use, while an Enterprise edition adds SSO (OIDC, SAML, LDAP), advanced RBAC, audit trails, federated search, and dedicated support. Self-hosting options include Docker, binary downloads for Linux, macOS, and Windows, Kubernetes manifests, or Helm charts.
openobserve alternatives
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All self-hosted alternatives to Datadog → All self-hosted alternatives to Splunk → All self-hosted alternatives to Elasticsearch →
Should you self-host openobserve?
openobserve scores 80/100 on selfhost.directory (how scoring works) and ranks #7 of 105 in Monitoring & observability. It has 22 973 GitHub stars, +692 in the last 30 days.
It shipped 22 stable releases in the past year. The latest, v1.1.2, came out on 20 October 2026. New versions land roughly every 5 days.
Setup is moderate: expect some configuration beyond a single command. An official Docker image is available. It is AGPL-3.0-licensed and written mostly in Typescript.
Its closest alternative on selfhost.directory is netdata (86/100, 81 345 stars). It scores higher overall, so compare the two before you pick. See openobserve vs netdata side by side.
Features
- AI Assistant
- AI/LLM observability
- Alerts
- Dashboards
- Data Pipelines
- Distributed Tracing
- Incidents
- Log Management
- Metrics
- Real User Monitoring (RUM)
- Service Graph
- SLOs
- SQL + PromQL query
- Synthetic monitoring
openobserve README
Open source Datadog alternative for logs, metrics, traces, and frontend monitoring. Modern observability platform: 10x easier, 140x lower storage cost, high performance, petabyte scale.
FAQ
Is there a steep learning curve?
No. OpenObserve uses familiar query languages (SQL for logs/traces, PromQL for metrics), has an intuitive GUI with drag-and-drop dashboard builder, and requires no complex tuning like Elasticsearch shards or heap sizes.
How does query performance compare to Elasticsearch?
OpenObserve delivers better performance than Elasticsearch for most workloads, with faster search and significantly faster analytics while using about a quarter of the hardware.
Is this production-ready?
Yes, OpenObserve runs in production across thousands of deployments worldwide, including environments processing in excess of 2 PB/day.
What are the limitations?
All data in OpenObserve is immutable — once ingested, it cannot be modified or deleted (only entire retention periods can be dropped). This is by design for logs and compliance use cases.
How does OpenObserve achieve 140x lower storage costs?
Through a combination of Parquet columnar storage (efficient compression) and an S3-native architecture (inexpensive object storage).
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