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Cloud · head to head

Koyeb vs OpenTelemetry

Koyeb logo

Koyeb

Cloud

High-performance serverless infrastructure for APIs, inference, and databases

From
$29/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
OpenTelemetry logo

OpenTelemetry

Cloud

Vendor-neutral standard for traces, metrics and logs

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only OpenTelemetry has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Koyeb pricing starts at $29/month with additional compute costs; OpenTelemetry genuinely complex to adopt: collectors, pipelines, samplers and exporters are a system to run in their own right
  • They diverge on capability: Koyeb covers Serverless containers, OpenTelemetry covers Vendor-neutral SDKs.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Koyeb and OpenTelemetry actually diverge.

Attributes where Koyeb and OpenTelemetry differ
AttributeKoyebOpenTelemetry
Starting price$29/monthFree
Pricing modelUnknownOpen source, no licence fee
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWeb, CLI, APILinux, macOS, Windows, Kubernetes, Docker

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated), category (Cloud).

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 Koyeb

  • Serverless containers
  • GPU support
  • Global distribution
  • Multi-protocol support
  • Serverless Postgres
  • Zero-downtime deployments

Only in OpenTelemetry

  • Vendor-neutral SDKs
  • Collector
  • Three signals
  • Auto-instrumentation

What people use each for

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

Koyeb

  • Deploying AI inference models globally with GPU accelerationnot OpenTelemetry
  • Building SaaS platforms with automatic scalingnot OpenTelemetry
  • Running distributed AI agents and background workersnot OpenTelemetry

OpenTelemetry

  • Instrumenting once and keeping the option to change observability vendor laternot Koyeb
  • Standardising telemetry across services written in different languagesnot Koyeb
  • Routing and filtering telemetry centrally to control observability spendnot Koyeb

Where each one falls short

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

Koyeb

  • Pricing starts at $29/month with additional compute costs
  • GPU compute is expensive at $0.75-$2.50 per hour
  • Limited customization for infrastructure configuration

OpenTelemetry

  • Genuinely complex to adopt: collectors, pipelines, samplers and exporters are a system to run in their own right
  • Language SDKs mature at different rates, so a polyglot estate gets uneven support
  • It produces and moves telemetry but does not store or visualise it, so a backend is still required and still billed

Pricing, plan by plan

Koyeb

$29/month
  • Pro$29/month
    • $10 included compute
    • 10 users
    • 100 services
  • Scale$299/month
    • $100 included compute
    • 50 users
    • 1,000 services
  • Enterprise$1000/month
    • Unlimited users
    • Custom resources
    • SSO/RBAC

OpenTelemetry

Free
  • OpenTelemetryFree
    • Full functionality
    • No usage limits
    • Community support

Which should you pick?

Choose Koyeb if

  • You need serverless containers.
  • You work on Web, CLI, API.
  • You also want gpu support.
Koyeb review

Choose OpenTelemetry if

  • You need vendor-neutral sdks.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, macOS, Windows, Kubernetes, Docker.
  • You also want collector.
OpenTelemetry review

Questions people ask

Is Koyeb or OpenTelemetry better?
Neither clearly leads. Koyeb starts at $29/month and OpenTelemetry at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Koyeb or OpenTelemetry?
OpenTelemetry has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $29/month for Koyeb and Free for OpenTelemetry.
Does Koyeb or OpenTelemetry run on more platforms?
Koyeb runs on Web, CLI, API. OpenTelemetry runs on Linux, macOS, Windows, Kubernetes, Docker.
Can I use OpenTelemetry for free?
Yes. OpenTelemetry has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Koyeb starts at $29/month.
What is Koyeb best used for?
Koyeb is most often used for deploying ai inference models globally with gpu acceleration, building saas platforms with automatic scaling, running distributed ai agents and background workers. Of those, deploying ai inference models globally with gpu acceleration and building saas platforms with automatic scaling are not what OpenTelemetry is typically brought in for.
What can Koyeb do that OpenTelemetry cannot?
Koyeb covers Serverless containers, GPU support, Global distribution, Multi-protocol support. OpenTelemetry covers Vendor-neutral SDKs, Collector, Three signals, Auto-instrumentation.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Koyeb: What are Koyeb's subscription plans?

Pro plan is $29/month with $10 included compute, Scale plan is $299/month with $100 included compute and 99.9% SLA, and Enterprise starts at $1,000/month with unlimited users and 99.99% SLA.

Source
OpenTelemetry: Is OpenTelemetry free?

Yes, open source under the CNCF. What you pay for is the backend you export to.

Koyeb: How much does GPU compute cost?

GPU pricing is per-second: RTX-A6000 costs $0.75/hour, A100 costs $1.60/hour, H100 costs $2.50/hour, and 8x H100 costs $20.00/hour.

Source
OpenTelemetry: Does OpenTelemetry replace Datadog or Grafana?

No. It replaces their proprietary agents and instrumentation libraries. You still need a backend to store and query the data.

Koyeb: What database options are available?

Koyeb offers serverless Postgres starting at free (0.25 vCPU, 1GB RAM) up to 3XL at $1.28/hour with 8 vCPU and 32GB RAM. Storage costs $0.50/month per GB.

Source
OpenTelemetry: Why adopt a vendor-neutral standard?

Because instrumentation is the expensive part. Once code emits OTel, changing observability vendor is a collector config change instead of re-instrumenting every service.

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