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It's a split decision.
Grafana is an observability platform: choose it to bring metrics, logs, traces and other telemetry together, with costs that grow with usage. incident.io is a reliability platform centered on incident response: choose it for on-call, coordination in Slack or Microsoft Teams, workflows and status pages, with paid plans priced per user. Both have free plans. Grafana connects through OpenTelemetry, Prometheus and plugins; incident.io connects incident work to organizational context such as deployments, code and telemetry.
01Side by side
| Grafana | incident.io | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Monthly platform fee plus telemetry and product usage | Per-user plans; some features cost extra |
| Free tier | Free; 10k active series and 50 GB/month | Free; basic response, on-call and status page |
| Open source and licence | Open source; licence name not specified | Open-source status and licence not published |
| Integrations | OpenTelemetry, Prometheus and hundreds of integrations | Slack, Teams and incident-context connections |
| Deployment model | Grafana Cloud; other deployment options unclear | Hosted software with web and collaboration clients |
| Platforms | Web | Web, mobile, Slack, Teams and desktop |
| Limits and scaling | Retention and included usage; additional usage billed | Plan caps on schedules, workflows and fields |
| Lock-in and data export | Open telemetry standards support portability | Integrates organizational context; export terms unclear |
Grafana Choose Grafana if
- Choose Grafana if telemetry analysis is your primary need.
- Choose Grafana if you want OpenTelemetry and Prometheus integrations.
- Choose Grafana if you need dashboards and usage-based observability.
incident.io Choose incident.io if
- Choose incident.io if on-call routing and incident coordination are priorities.
- Choose incident.io if responders work in Slack or Microsoft Teams.
- Choose incident.io if you want incident workflows and customer status pages.
02Pricing at real usage
Grafana's Free plan costs $0 and includes 14-day retention for metrics, logs, traces, profiles and k6, plus 10k active metric series and 50 GB/month for logs, traces and profiles. Pro starts with a $19/month platform fee; usage above product allowances is pay-as-you-go. For example, Pro logs cost $0.050/GB processed, $0.400/GB written and $0.100/GB retained. Grafana Assistant is $20 per active AI user, including 40M tokens monthly.
incident.io's Basic plan is free and includes response in Slack or Microsoft Teams, single-team on-call, a status page and essential automation. Team costs $19 per user/month, or $15 with annual billing, and has limits including two schedules and three workflows. Pro is $25 per user/month. On-call is an add-on: $10 per user/month with Team or $20 with Pro. Root cause analysis and autonomous-agent add-on prices are not published.
03API, SDKs and integration
Grafana Cloud is built around telemetry: the vendor names OpenTelemetry and Prometheus as open standards, and says the platform has hundreds of plugins and integrations. That makes it a fit for connecting existing telemetry sources rather than replacing them. Its features include dashboards, visualization and a Knowledge Graph that brings telemetry signals into shared context.
incident.io connects incident response to tools and organizational context. The vendor names Slack and Microsoft Teams for response, and describes connections to telemetry, deployments, code, incident history, logs, metrics, runbooks, pull requests and docs. Its workflows, policies and integrations support incident coordination. Neither vendor publishes API or SDK language details or CLI specifics on its homepage; ask about those requirements before choosing. Grafana lists Web as a platform, while incident.io lists Web, Mobile, Slack, Microsoft Teams and Desktop.
04Open source, self-hosting and lock-in
Grafana is identified as open source, and its use of OpenTelemetry and Prometheus gives teams standards-based ways to connect telemetry sources. The licence name and self-hosting options are not specified, so teams evaluating deployment control should confirm which components can be run outside Grafana Cloud and under what terms.
incident.io's open-source status and self-hosting options are not specified. Its product connects to organizational context, including telemetry, code, deployments and incident history. Neither vendor publishes data-export terms in the product details, so confirm export formats, retention after cancellation and migration support with the vendor. Grafana's open standards provide a clearer portability signal for telemetry integrations; they do not, by themselves, establish export procedures or remove migration work.
Questions people ask
Is Grafana or incident.io cheaper?
It depends on how the team uses each product. Grafana has a free tier, then charges a $19/month Pro platform fee plus usage. incident.io has a free Basic plan and paid plans priced per user: Team starts at $15 per user/month with annual billing, while Pro is $25 monthly.
Can Grafana replace incident.io?
Grafana includes incident response and management among its products, but its core focus is observability across telemetry. incident.io centers on on-call, incident coordination, workflows and status pages. Choose based on whether telemetry analysis or incident operations are the primary need, and verify required workflows before consolidating tools.
Can either product be self-hosted?
Grafana's website identifies Grafana Cloud and says Grafana is open source, but does not specify self-hosting options. incident.io's deployment details do not specify self-hosting either. If private deployment is a requirement, ask each vendor about supported deployment models, licence terms and which features are available outside its hosted service.
Do Grafana and incident.io have free plans?
Yes. Grafana Free includes 10k active metric series per month, 50 GB/month for logs, traces and profiles, and 14-day retention for several telemetry types. incident.io Basic includes Slack or Microsoft Teams response, single-team on-call, a status page and essential incident automation.