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Databases · head to head

Canary Labs vs Sourcegraph

Canary Labs logo

Canary Labs

Databases

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

From
$3000/year
Free plan
No
Visit Canary LabsFull review
Sourcegraph logo

Sourcegraph

Developer Tools

Code search and intelligence platform for large codebases with Cody AI assistant

From
$16000/year
Free plan
No
Visit SourcegraphFull review

The short version

  • Sourcegraph is an enterprise code intelligence platform.
  • Canary Labs starts at $3000/yr, Sourcegraph at $16000/yr.
  • Where Canary Labs falls short: it is a Windows-only server product with no Linux or container deployment, which complicates placing collectors in modern edge estates.
  • Where Sourcegraph falls short: enterprise pricing starting at $16k annually creates significant barrier for small teams.
  • Prices and features on this page were last checked on 13 November 2026.

Where they differ

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

Attributes where Canary Labs and Sourcegraph differ
AttributeCanary LabsSourcegraph
Starting price$3000/year$16000/year
Pricing modelPer tag band per yearSubscription
PlatformsWindows, WebWeb, Self-hosted
CategoryDatabasesDeveloper Tools

Identical on both: free tier (No).

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 Sourcegraph

Nothing recorded that Canary Labs does not also cover.

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 Sourcegraph
  • A water utility replacing SCADA-embedded logging with a historian that survives the next SCADA replacementnot Sourcegraph
  • An Ignition site that wants long-term storage and trending without paying per-client for dashboardsnot Sourcegraph
  • A plant with regulatory data-retention obligations where swinging-door compression would not survive an auditnot Sourcegraph

Sourcegraph

  • Large-scale code migrations across hundreds of repositoriesnot Canary Labs
  • Enterprise governance and code ownership trackingnot Canary Labs
  • AI-assisted bug hunting and security pattern detectionnot Canary Labs
  • Onboarding engineers into large unfamiliar codebasesnot Canary Labs
  • Regulatory compliance and code audit trailsnot 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

Sourcegraph

  • Enterprise pricing starting at $16k annually creates significant barrier for small teams
  • No free tier or standard plan published; all options require custom sales engagement
  • Complex enterprise-only positioning limits adoption compared to GitHub Copilot's pervasiveness
  • Requires indexing entire codebase; not suitable for small or ephemeral projects

Pricing, plan by plan

Canary Labs

$3000/year
  • Subscription, 3,500 tags$3,000/yr
    • Unlimited Axiom clients
    • Unlimited Excel clients
    • Support and upgrades included
  • Perpetual, 3,500 tags$8,730 one-off
    • 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$12,320/yr
    • 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 unlimitedOn request
    • Unlimited tags
    • Negotiated licensing terms
    • Quoted pricing

Sourcegraph

$16000/year
  • Enterprise$16,000/yr
    • Scales with team size
    • Credits for AI features per user
    • Deep Search

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 Sourcegraph if

  • You work on Web, Self-hosted.
Sourcegraph review

Questions people ask

Is Canary Labs or Sourcegraph better?
Neither clearly leads. Canary Labs starts at $3000/year and Sourcegraph at $16000/year, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Canary Labs or Sourcegraph?
Canary Labs starts at $3000/year and Sourcegraph at $16000/year.
Does Canary Labs or Sourcegraph run on more platforms?
Canary Labs runs on Windows, Web. Sourcegraph runs on Web, Self-hosted.
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 Sourcegraph is typically brought in for.
What can Canary Labs do that Sourcegraph cannot?
Canary Labs covers Loss-less compression, Unlimited clients, Store and forward, Views service.

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.

Canary Labs: Are client licences extra?

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

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.

Canary Labs: Does it use lossy compression?

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

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