Logging · pricing
Elastic APM pricing
Elastic APM publishes a single tier. Below is what it costs, what it covers, and how that compares with the logging tools listed alongside it.
As of 30 August 2026, Elastic APM pricing is free. Figures are the vendor's list prices as recorded on this page's last check; the vendor's site is the final word.
- Entry price
- Free
- Model
- Open-source
- Tiers
- 1
- Free tier
- Yes
Elastic APM plans, side by side
Every published tier in ascending order of price, with the number of features each one lists. An absence here means the record does not itemise it, not that the tier lacks it.
| Plan | Price | Features listed | Step up from the tier below |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | Free | 3 | Entry tier |
Where Elastic APM stops being free
Free, Free
- Performance monitoring
- Error tracking
- Transaction tracing
No paid tier on record
Elastic APM lists a free tier and no priced tier above it in the record we hold.
What the product covers
The full Elastic APM feature record, grouped as the catalogue groups it. This is the product as a whole; the record does not map every feature onto a specific tier.
Other
- Performance monitoring
- Error tracking
- Transaction tracing
- Custom metrics
Integrations
- API
- Webhooks
- REST
Platform
- Web support
- Api support
People bring Elastic APM in for distributed tracing across microservices, auto-instrumenting java, .net, python, go, node.js, ruby, php and c++ services, opentelemetry-native collection through the elastic distributions, correlating latency and errors with machine learning, monitoring llm calls alongside application traces. If that is not the job you are buying for, the alternatives to Elastic APM are worth a look before you commit to a tier.
How that compares in Logging
Too few logging tools in this directory publish a starting price to quote a meaningful median, so the table below is a like-for-like list rather than a ranking.
| Tool | Entry price | Model | Rated | Head to head |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elastic APM (this page) | Free | open-source | - | |
| Cronitor | Free, then $2/monitor/month | Pay-per-monitor plus user seats | - | vs Elastic APM |
| Uptime.com | On request | subscription | - | vs Elastic APM |
| Traceloop | Free | Freemium with pay-as-you-go enterprise option | - | vs Elastic APM |
| Openstatus | Free, then $30/month | - | - | vs Elastic APM |
| Healthchecks | Free, then $5/month | Per-job monitoring with fixed tiers | - | vs Elastic APM |
| incident.io | Free | subscription | - | vs Elastic APM |
Ratings are aggregated from third-party sources and imported with each catalogue entry, they are not reviews hosted on Softwr. How each figure is used is set out on the Elastic APM badges page.
Before you pay for Elastic APM
Three things this page cannot tell you, and all three change the bill. The record carries a price and a billing period but not the unit - per-seat and flat-rate pricing are indistinguishable in this data, so a five-person team may be looking at five times the figure above. It carries no annual rate, so any discount for paying yearly is not something this page can quote. And it carries no trial length.
What it can tell you is the shape of the ladder: a single tier at Free. Because there is a free tier, the cheapest way to answer the rest is to use it before paying anything.
Elastic APM runs on web, api, and is published by Elastic of United States. The full record is on the Elastic APM review, and the rest of the category is under best logging tools.
Elastic APM pricing questions
- How much does Elastic APM cost?
- Elastic APM publishes a single tier, Free, at Free.
- Does Elastic APM have a free plan?
- Yes. The Free tier costs nothing and covers performance monitoring, error tracking, transaction tracing.
- Which logging tools can I use without paying?
- 6 of the 8 logging tools listed alongside Elastic APM have a free tier: Cronitor, Traceloop, Openstatus, Healthchecks, incident.io.
- What am I actually paying for with Elastic APM?
- The record lists 9 features across 3 areas: other, integrations, platform. In practice it is brought in for distributed tracing across microservices, auto-instrumenting java, .net, python, go, node.js, ruby, php and c++ services, opentelemetry-native collection through the elastic distributions.
- Does Elastic APM charge per user?
- The record carries a price and a billing period for each of its 1 tiers, but not the unit that price is charged in. Per-seat and flat-rate billing look identical in this data, so check the vendor's page before budgeting for a team.
- Are these Elastic APM prices current?
- They are what the catalogue entry holds, refreshed when the entry is. Vendors change pricing without notice and nobody at Softwr re-verifies each tier by hand, so treat this as a structured summary and the vendor's own pricing page as the authority.
- What should I compare Elastic APM against before paying?
- The closest logging tools in this directory are Cronitor, Uptime.com, Traceloop, Openstatus. Each has a side-by-side comparison with Elastic APM covering price, platforms and features.