shouldiuse.io

VERDICT

Should I use Grafana Labs?

AI-powered observability platform unifying metrics, logs, traces, profiles, and business data on open standards. - grafana.com

Worth it. Buy if your engineering team needs unified metrics, logs, and traces across real infrastructure — the free tier and open ecosystem are best-in-class. Skip it if you just need simple uptime checks or lack budget discipline for usage-based billing.

Confidence

Medium. Based on 14+ public sources spanning reviews, security advisories, pricing analyses, and company news.

Ratings

  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Feature depth
  • Support qualityNo direct support evidence found
  • Security posture

Pricing

$0

Free

ModelNot disclosed
Monthly feesNot disclosed
HardwareNot disclosed
Free tierYes
ProUsage-based
EnterpriseCustom

Best for

  • DevOps and SRE teams
  • Kubernetes and cloud-native stacks
  • Multi-source telemetry consolidation
  • Open-source-first engineering orgs

Not for

  • Non-technical teams wanting simple uptime alerts
  • Small apps with one dashboard's worth of metrics
  • Teams without budget for usage-based billing surprises
  • Orgs wanting zero-maintenance monitoring

Gotchas - check before you buy

high

Usage-based pricing spikes with log and trace volume; costs climb quietly

high

CVE-2025-6023 enabled full account takeover; the first fix was incomplete

medium

Hacker downloaded internal code via leaked token; vendor reports no customer impact

medium

Open-source and cloud versions diverge; licensing and migration add hidden cost

Pros and cons

Pros

  • Free cloud tier plus open-source core avoids vendor lock-in
  • Unifies metrics, logs, traces, and profiles in one platform
  • Gartner Magic Quadrant Leader for observability platforms
  • 4.5/5 G2 rating across 167 reviews
  • Large library of prebuilt community dashboards

Cons

  • Cloud costs balloon at scale; users call pricing costly
  • Multiple critical CVEs, including full account takeover
  • Hacker accessed internal codebase via leaked token
  • Steep learning curve; users struggle with panel setup
  • True cost exceeds sticker price per independent analyses

Sources & method

Analyzed 9/20/2026 - 14 sources - Multiple CVEs patched in 2025–2026 (including a critical account-takeover flaw) plus a 2025 internal codebase breach; vendor reports no customer impact.

official x3review x4security x2news x5
  • CVE-2025-6023 full account takeover, Incomplete initial fix led to full account takeover; later remediated.
  • Critical CVE-2025-41115, Critical severity security fix issued for Grafana Enterprise.
  • 2025 codebase breach, Hacker accessed and downloaded internal code via leaked GitHub token; Grafana says no customer impact.
  • CVE-2026-27876 and CVE-2026-27880, Critical and high severity fixes released, including an internally discovered vulnerability.

Key stats

  • Value for money: 3/5

    Rating

  • $0

    Starting price

  • 14

    Sources

  • Analyzed

  • Value for money: 3/5. Free tier strong; usage costs climb fast
  • Ease of use: 3/5. Powerful, but panels confuse new users
  • Feature depth: 5/5. Gartner Leader; unified metrics, logs, traces, profiles
  • Support quality. No direct support evidence found
  • Security posture: 2/5. Multiple critical CVEs; codebase breach
  • 4.5/5 G2 rating 167+ reviews
  • Yes Free tier Grafana Cloud Free
  • $600M+ ARR 10,000+ customers
  • $270M Funding $6B valuation (2024)

Pricing

Free

$0

  • Grafana Cloud Free
  • Usage limits apply

Pro

Usage-based

  • Pay per metrics, logs, traces
  • Scales with volume

Enterprise

Not disclosed

  • Advanced governance and controls
  • Enterprise support

Security

Multiple CVEs patched in 2025–2026 (including a critical account-takeover flaw) plus a 2025 internal codebase breach; vendor reports no customer impact.

  • CVE-2025-6023 full account takeoverIncomplete initial fix led to full account takeover; later remediated.⁹
  • Critical CVE-2025-41115Critical severity security fix issued for Grafana Enterprise.
  • 2025 codebase breachHacker accessed and downloaded internal code via leaked GitHub token; Grafana says no customer impact.10
  • CVE-2026-27876 and CVE-2026-27880Critical and high severity fixes released, including an internally discovered vulnerability.

What users say

Users praise the feature depth and open ecosystem but frequently complain about cost creep and dashboard complexity.

“Personally I find it hard to use panel”
Reddit, r/sre
“Grafana becoming costly”
Reddit, r/grafana
“Tired of Grafana”
Reddit, r/grafana

Companies that use it

  • Anthropic⁸
  • Bloomberg
Full analysis

Based on 14+ public sources spanning reviews, security advisories, pricing analyses, and company news.

Top observability platform: generous free tier, deep features — but costs creep and security stumbles. Built for infra teams.

Methodology

Based on 14+ public sources spanning reviews, security advisories, pricing analyses, and company news.

Sources

  1. Grafana Labs Reviews — G2g2.com
    review
  2. Kubernetes Observability Tools — strike48strike48.com
    review
  3. What do you hate about using Grafana? — Reddit r/srereddit.com
    review
  4. Grafana becoming costly — Reddit r/grafanareddit.com
    review
  5. Grafana Cloud Pricing In 2026 — CloudZerocloudzero.com
    news
  6. Grafana Pricinggrafana.com
    official
  7. Grafana Cloud Free Tiergrafana.com
    official
  8. Grafana Labs press release: $250M ARR, Gartner Leadergrafana.com
    official
  9. Grafana CVE-2025-6023 full account takeover — OPSWATopswat.com
    security
  10. Grafana Labs codebase breach — Cybersecurity Divecybersecuritydive.com
    security
  11. Grafana Labs raises $270M — TechCrunchtechcrunch.com
    news
  12. Grafana Labs surpasses $600M ARR — Pulse2pulse2.com
    news
  13. The True Cost of Grafana — Sirius Open Sourcesiriusopensource.com
    news
  14. Grafana Alternatives — SigNozsignoz.io
    news

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