I'm looking for a centralized observability platform for a small startup with three lightweight products and a team of about 20 developers. We need logs, metrics, monitoring, alerting, and ideally tracing in one manageable system. Slack alert integration, multiple users, RBAC, low resource usage, straightforward setup on a virtual server, and no Kubernetes are important requirements. I'd prefer a genuinely open-source solution that we can host and control ourselves while still being able to scale later. Between OpenObserve and SigNoz, which would you recommend? I'm also open to alternatives and would like to hear what others are using.
4 Answers
Grafana with Loki and Prometheus is a mature, well-tested option, but it is more of a collection of components than a single platform. It can work very well, though you’ll need to spend time learning and maintaining each part. For a small team, the operational overhead may be greater than with OpenObserve or SigNoz.
Before choosing a self-hosted solution, consider whether the maintenance burden is worth the savings. Keeping an observability system upgraded, backed up, secured, and reliable during an incident can consume a surprising amount of engineering time. A managed service may be cheaper overall at small scale, but if self-hosting is non-negotiable, start with logs and metrics, keep the architecture simple, and add tracing later.
Other alternatives include ClickHouse-backed tools, VictoriaMetrics with Grafana, or a hosted service such as a managed SigNoz deployment. Quickwit with Grafana can also be suitable if log search is the main requirement, but it won’t provide the same all-in-one observability experience.
Between the two, OpenObserve seems like the better fit for a single virtual server and a lightweight setup. SigNoz has a stronger tracing and APM experience, while OpenObserve is simpler and tends to be more economical for log-heavy workloads. Both are closer to an all-in-one deployment than assembling a large Kubernetes-oriented stack.
The Victoria stack is worth a serious look: VictoriaMetrics for metrics, VictoriaLogs for logs, Grafana for dashboards and users, plus Alertmanager for Slack notifications. It’s open source, relatively lightweight, works without Kubernetes, and can start small while scaling later. The agent also makes collecting telemetry fairly straightforward.
A larger LGTM-style deployment can become complicated, especially when adding components for traces and long-term metrics storage. It makes more sense if you already use Kubernetes or have people dedicated to operating the observability platform.