Softwr

Databases · head to head

Canary Labs vs Firebolt

Canary Labs logo

Canary Labs

Databases

Industrial process historian with published per-tag pricing and no client licence fees

From
$3000/year
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Firebolt logo

Firebolt

Databases

Sub-second analytics at cloud data warehouse scale

From
$1.84/hour
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Canary Labs pricing steps by tag band rather than actual tags, so a site sitting just above a threshold pays the next band in full; growth from 3,400 to 3,600 tags is a licence purchase, not a rounding error.; Firebolt compute billed per second on Arm-based processors; small instances still incur measurable costs during idle periods despite auto-stop
  • They diverge on capability: Canary Labs covers Loss-less compression, Firebolt covers Sub-second Queries.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Canary Labs and Firebolt actually diverge.

Attributes where Canary Labs and Firebolt differ
AttributeCanary LabsFirebolt
Starting price$3000/year$1.84/hour
Pricing modelPer tag band per yearusage-based
PlatformsWindows, WebCloud (AWS, GCP, Azure preview), Docker, Kubernetes
FoundedUnknown2019

Identical on both: free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Databases).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Canary Labs

  • Loss-less compression
  • Unlimited clients
  • Store and forward
  • Views service
  • Sparkplug B
  • Calculation engine
  • Axiom
  • ODBC and REST

Only in Firebolt

  • Sub-second Queries
  • Sparse Indexes
  • Data Pruning
  • Decoupled Storage/Compute
  • SQL Support
  • Semi-structured Data
  • Workload Isolation
  • Airflow

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Canary Labs

  • A manufacturer that needs a compliant historian but cannot justify a PI System enterprise agreementnot Firebolt
  • A water utility replacing SCADA-embedded logging with a historian that survives the next SCADA replacementnot Firebolt
  • An Ignition site that wants long-term storage and trending without paying per-client for dashboardsnot Firebolt
  • A plant with regulatory data-retention obligations where swinging-door compression would not survive an auditnot Firebolt

Firebolt

  • Data analytics teams running gigabyte-to-petabyte datasets with sub-second query requirementsnot Canary Labs
  • Real-time business intelligence platforms requiring ACID transactions and snapshot isolationnot Canary Labs
  • Applications needing vector search on analytical data for similarity queriesnot Canary Labs

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Canary Labs

  • Pricing steps by tag band rather than actual tags, so a site sitting just above a threshold pays the next band in full; growth from 3,400 to 3,600 tags is a licence purchase, not a rounding error.
  • CustomerCare at 18 percent of licence cost is effectively mandatory on perpetual licences because lapsing it removes upgrades, so the perpetual option is not really a one-time cost.
  • The storage format is proprietary; getting data out at volume means the ODBC connector, an additional 2,500 USD one-time or 1,000 USD a year, or writing against the REST API.
  • Canary is a small vendor with a limited partner network outside North America, so support coverage and integrator availability in Europe and Asia are thinner than for AVEVA or Ignition.
  • It is a Windows-only server product with no Linux or container deployment, which complicates placing collectors in modern edge estates.

Firebolt

  • Compute billed per second on Arm-based processors; small instances still incur measurable costs during idle periods despite auto-stop
  • Storage pass-through charged at $0.0264/GB monthly on compressed data; uncompressed storage could exceed this
  • Azure deployment currently in Preview status; production recommendations unclear
  • Vector indexes limited to float arrays; other data types require alternative indexing strategies
  • Free tier credits ($200) limited; no perpetual free tier for production use

Pricing, plan by plan

Canary Labs

$3000/year
  • Subscription, 3,500 tags$3000/year
    • Unlimited Axiom clients
    • Unlimited Excel clients
    • Support and upgrades included
  • Perpetual, 3,500 tags$8730/one-time
    • 7,400 USD licence plus 1,330 USD first-year CustomerCare
    • CustomerCare renews at 18 percent of licence cost per year
    • Unlimited clients
  • Private cloud, 3,500 tags$12320/year
    • Hosted by Canary
    • 1,500 USD one-time setup fee per system
    • Scales to around 58,684 USD per year at 60,000 tags
  • Enterprise unlimited$undefined/year
    • Unlimited tags
    • Negotiated licensing terms
    • Quoted pricing

Firebolt

$1.84/hour

No published plan breakdown. See the Firebolt review.

Which should you pick?

Choose Canary Labs if

  • You need loss-less compression.
  • You work on Windows, Web.
  • You also want unlimited clients.
Canary Labs review

Choose Firebolt if

  • You need sub-second queries.
  • You work on Cloud (AWS, GCP, Azure preview), Docker, Kubernetes.
  • You also want sparse indexes.
Firebolt review

Questions people ask

Is Canary Labs or Firebolt better?
Neither clearly leads. Canary Labs starts at $3000/year and Firebolt at $1.84/hour, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Canary Labs or Firebolt?
Canary Labs starts at $3000/year and Firebolt at $1.84/hour.
Does Canary Labs or Firebolt run on more platforms?
Canary Labs runs on Windows, Web. Firebolt runs on Cloud (AWS, GCP, Azure preview), Docker, Kubernetes.
What is Canary Labs best used for?
Canary Labs is most often used for a manufacturer that needs a compliant historian but cannot justify a pi system enterprise agreement, a water utility replacing scada-embedded logging with a historian that survives the next scada replacement, an ignition site that wants long-term storage and trending without paying per-client for dashboards, a plant with regulatory data-retention obligations where swinging-door compression would not survive an audit. Of those, a manufacturer that needs a compliant historian but cannot justify a pi system enterprise agreement and a water utility replacing scada-embedded logging with a historian that survives the next scada replacement are not what Firebolt is typically brought in for.
What can Canary Labs do that Firebolt cannot?
Canary Labs covers Loss-less compression, Unlimited clients, Store and forward, Views service. Firebolt covers Sub-second Queries, Sparse Indexes, Data Pruning, Decoupled Storage/Compute.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Canary Labs: What does Canary cost?

8,730 USD for a 3,500 tag perpetual system including first-year CustomerCare, or 3,000 USD a year on subscription.

Firebolt: How does Firebolt's compute billing model work?

Firebolt uses per-second billing with scale-to-zero capability. The smallest S tier costs $1.84 per hour with 8 vCPU and 64GB memory, while the largest 4XL tier costs $58.88 per hour with 256 vCPU. Users only pay when compute is running.

Source
Canary Labs: Are client licences extra?

No. Unlimited Axiom browser clients and unlimited Excel clients are included on every tier.

Firebolt: What is the cost for data storage on Firebolt?

Storage costs $0.0264 per GB per month on object storage, billed as pass-through cost at cloud provider rates.

Source
Canary Labs: Is perpetual cheaper than subscription?

Canary states perpetual pays off after roughly three years, and after that you still pay 18 percent CustomerCare annually.

Firebolt: What free credits or trial does Firebolt offer new users?

New users receive $200 free credits to get started with the platform.

Source
Canary Labs: Does it use lossy compression?

No. Canary stores every collected value rather than approximating the trend, which matters for regulated data retention.

Firebolt: Does Firebolt publish pricing for commitment-based discounts?

The pricing FAQ lists a question about commitment-based discounts but does not provide published answers on the pricing page. This requires direct inquiry with sales.

Source
Firebolt: What deployment options does Firebolt offer besides managed service?

Firebolt offers self-hosted open source deployment (unlimited) and Bring Your Own Cloud (BYOC) options in addition to managed service.

Source
Share

Related pages

More on Canary Labs

More on Firebolt

Keep looking

Other head to heads