Uptrace vs Grafana: Which Observability Tool Should You Use?

A practical comparison of Uptrace and Grafana for tracing, metrics, and logs — pricing, features, and which one fits a small engineering team.

Updated 2026-10 · 2026

Uptrace

Open-source APM built on OpenTelemetry and ClickHouse

Free (self-hosted, open source)cloud plans from ~$39/month based on data volume

Strengths

+Unified traces, metrics, and logs in one tool with no vendor lock-in to multiple backends
+Built on ClickHouse, which makes self-hosting cheap at high data volumes
+Native OpenTelemetry support with minimal config

Weaknesses

-Much smaller community and plugin ecosystem than Grafana
-Dashboarding and visualization options are basic compared to Grafana
-Fewer third-party data source integrations

Best for

Small engineering teams who want unified OpenTelemetry observability without stitching together Prometheus, Loki, and Tempo separately.

Grafana

The industry-standard dashboarding and observability platform

Free (OSS self-hosted) / Free forever tier on Grafana CloudPro plans start around $19/month plus usage-based billing for logs, metrics, and traces

Strengths

+Massive plugin and data source ecosystem (Prometheus, Loki, Tempo, Elasticsearch, InfluxDB, and 150+ more)
+Best-in-class dashboard builder with huge library of community dashboards
+Grafana Cloud free tier includes metrics, logs, and traces with generous limits for small teams

Weaknesses

-Requires separate backends (Mimir/Prometheus, Loki, Tempo) for a full observability stack if self-hosting
-Can get complex and resource-heavy to self-host the full stack
-Usage-based Cloud pricing can grow unpredictably with data volume

Best for

Teams that want a proven, widely-adopted visualization and alerting layer that can sit on top of many different data sources.

Feature Comparison

Feature	Uptrace	Grafana
Self-hosted cost	Free, open source	Free (OSS), but requires multiple components
Managed cloud free tier	Limited free tier, data-volume capped	Forever-free tier: metrics, logs, traces for up to 3 users
Tracing support	Native, OpenTelemetry-first	Via Tempo (separate component)
Metrics support	Native, OpenTelemetry-first	Via Prometheus/Mimir
Log management	Native, built-in	Via Loki (separate component)
Dashboarding	Basic, functional	Industry-leading, highly customizable
Query language	UQL (SQL-like)	PromQL / LogQL / TraceQL (per data source)
Data source integrations	OpenTelemetry-focused, limited beyond that	150+ official and community plugins
Alerting	Built-in, basic	Mature, unified alerting across data sources
Setup complexity	Simple single-service deploy	More complex multi-component stack
Community size	Small	Very large

The Verdict

Uptrace is the simpler, cheaper-to-run option if you only care about OpenTelemetry traces, metrics, and logs and don't need fancy dashboards. Grafana wins if you want best-in-class visualization, a huge plugin ecosystem, and a tool that can grow with you into a full enterprise observability stack. Most teams outgrow Uptrace's dashboarding limits before they outgrow Grafana's complexity.

How to switch from Uptrace to Grafana

1Export historical data out of Uptrace using `clickhouse-client` against its ClickHouse backend, e.g. `clickhouse-client --query "SELECT * FROM spans FORMAT CSVWithNames" > spans.csv`, since there's no built-in export UI.
2Set up your Grafana destination — either sign up for Grafana Cloud's free tier or self-host Tempo (traces), Loki (logs), and Mimir/Prometheus (metrics).
3Update your OpenTelemetry Collector config to point its OTLP exporters at Grafana's endpoints instead of Uptrace's ingestion URL.
4Rebuild your key dashboards in Grafana, either from scratch or using community dashboards from grafana.com/dashboards, since Uptrace's UQL dashboards don't transfer.
5Recreate your alerting rules and notification channels (Slack, PagerDuty, email) in Grafana Alerting.
6Run Uptrace and Grafana in parallel for 1–2 weeks to confirm data parity, then cut over the team and decommission the Uptrace instance.

Uptrace vs Grafana: common questions

How do I export my data from Uptrace before switching to Grafana?+

Uptrace doesn't have a one-click export button — your traces, metrics, and logs live in ClickHouse tables under the hood. You export them using `clickhouse-client` with a query like `SELECT * FROM spans FORMAT CSVWithNames` (or Parquet) to dump historical data for archival. For ongoing data, it's easier to just redirect your OpenTelemetry Collector pipeline to send new data to Grafana instead of back-filling old data.

What do I lose by switching from Uptrace to Grafana?+

You lose Uptrace's single-tool simplicity — Grafana's full stack (Tempo, Loki, Mimir) requires running or paying for multiple components instead of one. You'll also lose Uptrace's UQL dashboards and alerts, which don't import into Grafana and need to be rebuilt from scratch.

Is Grafana's free tier enough for a small team?+

Yes, for most small teams. Grafana Cloud's free forever tier includes 10k active metric series, 50GB of logs, 50GB of traces, and up to 3 users, which covers typical small-team workloads. You'll only need to upgrade once your data volume or user count grows past those limits.

Does Grafana integrate with the tools we already use?+

Almost certainly yes — Grafana has over 150 official and community data source plugins covering Prometheus, Elasticsearch, InfluxDB, CloudWatch, Datadog, and more. If your current stack already sends OpenTelemetry data, you can route it to Tempo/Loki/Mimir with minimal changes to your collector config.

Will switching to Grafana cost more over time?+

It depends on your data volume. Grafana Cloud's usage-based pricing can grow faster than Uptrace's simpler tiers if you ingest a lot of logs or traces, but self-hosting the OSS Grafana stack stays free aside from infrastructure costs. Compare your actual monthly data volume against both pricing pages before committing long-term.