OpenObserve
Ranked 9 of 16 observability platforms by recommenders
Recommended as a simple, self-contained, performant observability stack that is cheap to run and easy to deploy.
Recommended as a simple, self-contained, performant observability stack that is cheap to run and easy to deploy.
9 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 9
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 9 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 4 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Simple, self-contained, easy to deploy
“just a single binary/container that would suffice for most users' needs”
Comment from 15 Nov 2025 in “I can't recommend Grafana anymore” “I really like that it's self-contained, easy to deploy and manage.”
Comment from 15 Nov 2025 in “I can't recommend Grafana anymore” “Extremely performant and simple full-stack observability solution.”
Comment from 13 May 2026 in “Traceway: MIT-licensed observability stack you can self-host in ~90s” - Comment from 17 Nov 2025 in “I can't recommend Grafana anymore”
- Comment from 29 Oct 2026 in “Ask HN: Has anyone used Phoenix, Langfuse, or OpenObserve?”
- Comment from 15 Nov 2025 in “I can't recommend Grafana anymore”
Performant, proven at petabyte scale
“Extremely performant and simple full-stack observability solution.”
Comment from 13 May 2026 in “Traceway: MIT-licensed observability stack you can self-host in ~90s” “OpenObserve too, is already being used at a multi-petabyte scale.”
Comment from 16 Nov 2025 in “I can't recommend Grafana anymore” “OpenObserve would be the simplest and most performant”
Comment from 17 Nov 2025 in “I can't recommend Grafana anymore” Favoured over other observability tools
“OpenObserve would be the simplest and most performant”
Comment from 17 Nov 2025 in “I can't recommend Grafana anymore” “OpenObserve might be what you're looking for”
Comment from 15 Nov 2025 in “I can't recommend Grafana anymore” “I think that OpenObserve is even simpler”
Comment from 15 Nov 2025 in “I can't recommend Grafana anymore” Enthusiastic endorsements from users
“I think it looks amazing, I haven't looked into it enough to know of any downsides.”
Comment from 14 May 2026 in “Traceway: MIT-licensed observability stack you can self-host in ~90s” “OpenObserve might be what you're looking for”
Comment from 15 Nov 2025 in “I can't recommend Grafana anymore” “I can personally vouch for OpenObserve”
Comment from 28 Nov 2025 in “Show HN: Spikelog – A simple metrics service for scripts, cron jobs, and MVPs”
Other observability platforms people recommend
The four most recommended other observability platforms, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grafana | 71 | 41 | 63% | 11 | — | — |
| Prometheus | 48 | 24 | 67% | 11 | — | Approved |
| Datadog | 40 | 39 | 51% | 11 | — | — |
| Sentry | 31 | 30 | 51% | 11 | — | — |
| OpenObserveThis page | 9 | 0 | 100% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
All 14 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“much simpler and lighter to run with all the features”
“We recently moved to openobserve for due to cost, but visualisations are good enough too.”
“I think it looks amazing, I haven't looked into it enough to know of any downsides.”
“Extremely performant and simple full-stack observability solution.”
“I also run open observe at home, but I can't help but feel that the interface could use some... sparkle, and the mobile experience kinda sucks.”
“especially because in Ruby the OTEL stuff isn't great for metrics and logs yet”
“I can personally vouch for OpenObserve”
“OpenObserve would be the simplest and most performant”
“We've built OpenObserve with a fundamentally different architecture.”
“OpenObserve too, is already being used at a multi-petabyte scale.”
“I really like that it's self-contained, easy to deploy and manage.”
“just a single binary/container that would suffice for most users' needs”
“I think that OpenObserve is even simpler”
“OpenObserve might be what you're looking for”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.