What is OpenObserve used for?

OpenObserve is a cloud-native observability platform covering logs, metrics, traces, RUM and LLM monitoring, with Parquet columnar storage on S3 and a pitch against Datadog and Splunk. It is a good fit for replacing Datadog or Splunk with a cheaper stack, centralized log search at large scale, and frontend monitoring and session replay.

Is OpenObserve open source?

Yes. OpenObserve is open source under the AGPL-3.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at openobserve/openobserve and is written mainly in TypeScript.

Yes. OpenObserve is open source, so the software itself is free to use. A managed cloud version is also available.

Can I self-host OpenObserve?

Yes. OpenObserve can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.

What is OpenObserve an alternative to?

OpenObserve is an open-source alternative to Datadog, Splunk, Elastic and Sumo Logic. Other open-source alternatives to Datadog include SigNoz, HyperDX and Grafana Loki.

Is OpenObserve actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to OpenObserve was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is v1.1.0-rc1, published on 30 September 2026. The project has 22k stars on GitHub.

OpenObserve: open-source alternative to Datadog, Splunk

About OpenObserve

OpenObserve, often shortened to O2, is open-source observability software spanning logs, metrics, traces and analytics, real user monitoring on web, Android and iOS, session replay, pipelines, SLOs and AI and LLM observability. It is pitched as a lower-cost option next to Datadog, Splunk and Elasticsearch for teams that want complete observability without the complexity or price.

Its architecture uses Parquet columnar storage and an S3-native design, which the project says can cut storage costs by up to 140 times compared with Elasticsearch, with petabyte-scale capacity. Topics reference OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, Jaeger and Kibana, showing the standards and tools it interoperates with. The README has sections on architecture, comparisons, production readiness, security and compliance, and an enterprise edition.

OpenObserve is AGPL-3.0 licensed, with a hosted cloud option and a self-hosted deployment, and documentation and a Slack community are provided. It suits engineering teams looking to consolidate logging, metrics and tracing in one tool while keeping storage costs under control.

Key features

Logs, metrics and traces in one platform
Real user monitoring and session replay
LLM and AI observability
Parquet columnar storage on S3
OpenTelemetry and Prometheus compatibility
Pipelines and SLO tracking

Good fit for

→Replacing Datadog or Splunk with a cheaper stack
→Centralized log search at large scale
→Frontend monitoring and session replay

Built with: TypeScript
Tags: observability; logs; metrics; tracing; opentelemetry; datadog-alternative; rum; session-replay; self-hosted

OpenObserve: questions and answers

What is OpenObserve used for?: OpenObserve is a cloud-native observability platform covering logs, metrics, traces, RUM and LLM monitoring, with Parquet columnar storage on S3 and a pitch against Datadog and Splunk. It is a good fit for replacing Datadog or Splunk with a cheaper stack, centralized log search at large scale, and frontend monitoring and session replay.
Is OpenObserve open source?: Yes. OpenObserve is open source under the AGPL-3.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at openobserve/openobserve and is written mainly in TypeScript.
Is OpenObserve free?: Yes. OpenObserve is open source, so the software itself is free to use. A managed cloud version is also available.
Can I self-host OpenObserve?: Yes. OpenObserve can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.
What is OpenObserve an alternative to?: OpenObserve is an open-source alternative to Datadog, Splunk, Elastic and Sumo Logic. Other open-source alternatives to Datadog include SigNoz, HyperDX and Grafana Loki.
Is OpenObserve actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to OpenObserve was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is v1.1.0-rc1, published on 30 September 2026. The project has 22k stars on GitHub.