Azure Application Insights vs Uptrace
Azure Application Insights
azure.microsoft.com
Uptrace
uptrace.devSide by side
| Figure | Azure Application Insights | Uptrace |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | $39/mo |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | — |
| Android | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 6 |
| Spec score · Application Performance Monitoring | 8.4 (#8) | 8.6 (#5) |
| Spec score · Runtime Monitoring Software | 8.4 (#16) | 8.6 (#13) |
| Data residency | Microsoft says the global endpoint does not guarantee regional data residency and recommends regional Application Insights endpoints for regional compliance requirements. | The homepage says Uptrace Cloud servers and data are located in Germany and Finland, with a stated 99.9% uptime SLA. |
| Integrations | Documented integrations include Azure SDK tracing, Cosmos DB SDK observability, .NET OpenTelemetry, Azure Container Apps, Azure Data Explorer, and Azure AI Foundry. | Telemetry can arrive through OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, Vector, Fluent Bit and CloudWatch, and Grafana can use Uptrace as Prometheus or Tempo data sources. |
| Security | Application Insights supports TLS 1.2 and 1.3, and Microsoft Entra authentication can restrict telemetry ingestion to authenticated identities. | Uptrace states that browser traffic uses SSL/TLS, database backups are encrypted, and most live database data is not encrypted at rest. |
| Support | Microsoft recommends its Azure Monitor OpenTelemetry Distro for new projects and describes it as supported by Microsoft. | The project directs users to Telegram, Slack and GitHub Discussions for help; paid editions add email, priority, fast-SLA or dedicated support. |
Plans
Azure Application Insights
- Pay-as-you-go (Azure Monitor Logs)Price not published
Uptrace
- CommunityFree
- Uptrace CloudFree
- Starter$39 a month
- Team$199 a month
- Business$499 a month
- EnterprisePriced on request
In their own words
Azure Application Insights
Azure Application Insights is an Azure Monitor service for collecting and analyzing application telemetry. It combines alerts, metrics, logs, workbooks, Grafana dashboards, and investigation tools such as application maps, live metrics, transaction search, availability monitoring, failure analysis, and performance views. Usage analytics cover users, sessions, events, funnels, flows, and cohorts. For.NET applications, diagnostics include profiling and a snapshot debugger for exceptions. Microsoft recommends the Azure Monitor OpenTelemetry Distro for most code-based server-side scenarios; browser telemetry uses the Application Insights JavaScript SDK. Setup paths cover web apps, virtual machines, JavaScript apps, Azure Functions, Kubernetes, and AI agents. Telemetry is stored in a Log Analytics workspace, and the service can work with applications hosted outside Azure. A daily ingestion cap can stop excess collection until the next UTC day, while sampling can reduce volume. The pricing page lists 90 days of no-charge retention, with longer retention charged by retained data volume. Ingestion is usage-based, with the first 5 GB per month per billing account free.
Uptrace
Uptrace is an OpenTelemetry-native observability platform that unifies traces, metrics and logs. It provides UQL for querying spans and logs and a PromQL-compatible engine for metrics. Dashboards can combine spans, events, logs and metrics, configured in the UI or YAML. Metric and error monitors can send notifications through email, Slack, PagerDuty and other channels. Uptrace lists Grafana integration as a Prometheus and Tempo data source and includes a built-in MCP server for AI assistants. It offers cloud and self-hosted deployment, with Docker, Ansible and Kubernetes installation options; precompiled binaries are listed for Linux, macOS and Windows. Uptrace Cloud retains data for four weeks by default, with cold storage options for up to 100 weeks. The free Cloud plan includes 50 GB per month and 5,000 timeseries per month, while Community is free with unlimited usage and 14 days of retention. Paid plans start at $39 a month. The privacy policy says data in transit and database backups are encrypted, but most live database data is not encrypted at rest.