Top 10 ServiceNow (Lightstep) Alternatives for Observability in 2025

Lightstep, now ServiceNow Cloud Observability, is an excellent platform providing full visibility into cloud-native and monolithic applications.

If you’re seeking alternatives to Lightstep that offer a great balance of cost, features, and user experience, this article has you covered.

This article explores 10 compelling Lightstep(ServiceNow Cloud Observability) alternatives to help you find the perfect fit for your needs.

Lightstep key features

Lightstep integrates OpenTelemetry for vendor-neutral telemetry. It also uses a unified query language (UQL) for consistent querying across dashboards, notebooks, and alerts, and delivers intelligent alerting that quantifies impact and suggests remediation strategies.

Key features include:

• Unified dashboards that integrate metrics, logs, and traces
• Advanced anomaly detection for proactive incident management
• Automated service mapping
• Integration with the Now Platform for workflow automation

The top 10 Lightstep alternatives for 2024

Here’s a quick overview of the tools we’ll explore in this article, highlighting their strengths and what makes them stand out:

With the overview complete, we'll now refer to Lightstep as its new name, ServiceNow Cloud Observability, moving forward.

1. Better Stack

Better Stack is a versatile observability platform that integrates real-time log management, infrastructure, and uptime monitoring into a user-friendly solution.

It converts raw logs into structured JSON and leverages ClickHouse for fast SQL-based searches. Better Stack also delivers actionable insights and simplifies troubleshooting for complex environments.

🌟 Key features

• Infrastructure monitoring
• Uptime monitoring
  
• Incident management
• Status pages
  
• Anomaly detection

➕ Pros

• Harnesses ClickHouse for lightning-fast searches across billions of log lines
• Combines logs, metrics, alerts, and status pages into one platform
• Shared dashboards and Slack-based incident management foster team collaboration
• Transparent, flexible pricing options, including a free tier, make it more cost-effective

➖ Cons

• Does not currently offer distributed tracing tools, but they are in development
  

💲 Pricing

Better Stack offers a free plan that includes up to 3 GB of logs retained for 3 days, 2 billion metrics for 30 days, and 10 basic monitors. The pay-as-you-go plan starts at $29/month and includes advanced features like on-call management, private status pages, unlimited alerts, and extended log retention.

Curious about more details? Check out the pricing page.

2. Datadog

Datadog is an observability platform that provides full-stack visibility, making it easy for you to monitor, troubleshoot, and optimize complex systems. Its collaborative dashboards and analytics make incident resolution faster and more efficient.

🌟 Key features

• Infrastructure monitoring
  
• Log management and analytics
  
• Anomaly detection and intelligent alerting
  
• Real user monitoring
  
• Synthetic testing and monitoring
  

➕ Pros

• Has over 800 integrations that enable quick setup and compatibility with most tech stacks
  
• Unified platform reduces context switching and enhances team collaboration
  
• Scalable architecture handles large data volumes with ease
  
• Customizable querying and visualization for deep analysis
  
• Seamless integration with over 800 technologies ensures flexibility
  

➖ Cons

• Initial setup can be challenging for beginners
  
• Costs may increase significantly with high data ingestion

💲 Pricing

Datadog offers flexible pricing with a free tier for basic monitoring. The Infrastructure plan starts at $15 per host per month (billed annually) and includes essential collection and visualization features.

3. New Relic

New Relic is another excellent platform that offers end-to-end visibility across your entire stack. It simplifies monitoring, analysis, and incident response with advanced insights, integrations, and unified dashboards.

🌟 Key features

• Application performance monitoring
  
• Infrastructure monitoring
  
• Log management
  
• Real user monitoring
  
• Anomaly detection and incident management
  

➕ Pros

• Speeds up root-cause analysis and minimizes MTTR with advanced analytics
  
• Offers a robust ecosystem with 750+ integrations for quick onboarding and scalability
  
• Transparent, usage-based pricing ensures predictable costs
  
• Unified dashboards provide real-time correlation of metrics, traces, and logs for better insights
  
• Enhances team collaboration and data-driven decision-making
  

➖ Cons

• The extensive feature set may lead to a steep learning curve during initial setup
  
• Advanced features can increase costs for larger deployments
  

💲 Pricing

New Relic offers a free tier with 100 GB/month of data ingestion and unlimited basic users. Paid plans start at $15 per monthly host (billed annually), with the standard edition scaling to meet the growing infrastructure needs. Pricing is usage-based and transparent, ensuring you only pay for what you use.

4. Sumo Logic

Sumo Logic is a log analytics platform that transforms raw log data into actionable insights. Sumo Logic allows you to troubleshoot issues, improve security, and optimize performance within a clean user interface.

🌟 Key features

• Log analytics with structured search
  
• Anomaly detection and outlier analysis
  
• Real-time alerting
• incident management
  

➕ Pros

• Quickly identifies patterns and resolves issues with high-speed log searches that efficiently handle unstructured data
  
• Designed to handle large-scale data ingestion and analysis without performance bottlenecks
  
• Offers flexible, usage-based pricing without hidden fees, ensuring cost-effectiveness at scale
  
• Built-in cloud SIEM and infrastructure security features for rapid threat detection and resolution
  

➖ Cons

• Advanced configurations may require additional expertise for optimal setup and usage
  

💲 Pricing

Sumo Logic provides a free tier with $0 ingest and unlimited users, making it an ideal starting point for small teams. Its scalable pricing adjusts for growing needs based on data ingestion, retention, and selected features.

5. Honeycomb

Honeycomb is a modern observability platform built for high-cardinality environments. It transforms raw telemetry data into detailed, actionable insights, enabling quicker troubleshooting, deeper context, and cost-efficient scaling.

🌟 Key features

• Frontend observability
  
• Log analytics
  
• Distributed tracing
  
• Service maps
  
• BubbleUp anomaly detection
  

➕ Pros

• Unlimited dimensionality supports granular, high-cardinality analysis, delivering richer insights compared to traditional siloed approaches
  
• Fast query performance over large datasets reduces mean time to resolution
• Event-based pricing ensures you only pay for the data you use, offering flexibility and cost efficiency as you scale
  
• Shareable queries and dashboards promote team collaboration and knowledge sharing

➖ Cons

• Requires time and expertise to use its powerful querying and dynamic dashboard capabilities fully
  

💲 Pricing

Honeycomb uses a transparent, event-based pricing model, allowing unlimited fields, users, and services. Start with a free plan supporting up to 20M events per month. Pro plans begin at $130/month for up to 100M events, with scalable options for larger needs. Enterprise plans are tailored to fit specific business requirements.

6. SolarWinds Observability SaaS

SolarWinds Observability SaaS provides a platform for monitoring your entire IT ecosystem, from applications and networks to logs, databases, and user experiences. It simplifies troubleshooting and encourages collaboration with powerful tools that deliver actionable insights and streamline workflows.

🌟 Key features

• Log management
  
• Real-time anomaly detection
  
• Synthetic and real user monitoring
  
• Digital experience insights
  

➕ Pros

• Combines multiple observability domains into a single platform
• Its insights enable faster root-cause analysis and boost operational efficiency
  
• Flexible deployment options accommodate diverse infrastructure setups
  

➖ Cons

• Initial setup can take time to configure all modules for optimal performance
  
• Can be expensive to use

💲 Pricing

SolarWinds Observability SaaS uses a modular pricing model starting at $27.50 per application instance, $12.00 per network device or host, $5.00 per GB of log data, $70.00 per database instance, and $10.00 per digital experience check or page view per month. This approach allows you to customize your observability stack and scale affordably based on their needs.

7. Splunk Observability Cloud

Splunk Observability Cloud provides a unified platform for monitoring metrics, traces, and logs across on-premises, hybrid, and multi-cloud environments. It features excellent onboarding tools and third-party integrations that simplify the setup process, enabling faster and more efficient adoption.

🌟 Key features

• Infrastructure monitoring
  
• Log management and analytics
  
• Real user monitoring
  
• Synthetic monitoring
  

➕ Pros

• Easy onboarding with clear, turn-key pricing and scalable packages
  
• Combines metrics, traces, and logs into one platform for faster root-cause analysis
  
• Provide intelligent insights that reduce manual troubleshooting and improve efficiency
  
• Integrates smoothly with Splunk’s ecosystem and third-party tools for added flexibility
  

➖ Cons

• The interface can take a while to get used to

💲 Pricing

Splunk Observability Cloud starts at $15 per host per month, billed annually, for infrastructure monitoring. Additional capabilities, such as application & infra and end-to-end observability, are available through tiered pricing, offering a transparent and scalable structure to meet varying observability needs.

8. Dynatrace

Dynatrace delivers a unified observability, security, and business platform to transform how you monitor and manage complex cloud-native and hybrid environments.

🌟 Key features

• Infrastructure monitoring
• Kubernetes platform monitoring
• Application security
• Real user monitoring
• Synthetic monitoring
• Log management & analytics

➕ Pros

• Predictive AI analytics with Davis® enables faster resolution and proactive prevention of issues
• Unified observability across applications, infrastructure, networks, and digital experiences simplifies operations
• Automates discovery, correlation, and remediation to reduce manual effort and enhance efficiency
• Built for large-scale environments with cloud-native architecture to handle high-volume data seamlessly
• Flexible consumption-based pricing includes volume discounts and straightforward contracts

➖ Cons

• Costs can add up for smaller-scale deployments if all features are not operated effectively

💲 Pricing

Dynatrace uses a transparent, usage-based platform subscription model. Pricing starts at $0.08 per hour for full-stack monitoring on an 8 GiB host, with additional costs for capabilities like Kubernetes monitoring, application security, and log management.

9. Elastic Cloud

Elastic Cloud is a fully managed platform for observability, search, and security built on the Elastic Stack. At its core is Elasticsearch, a powerful search and analytics engine, but the platform also integrates other essential components like Kibana for data visualization and management.

🌟 Key features

• Log management and analytics
  
• Application performance monitoring
  
• Infrastructure monitoring
  
• Universal profiling
  

➕ Pros

• Combines search, observability, and security in one platform
• Built-in security features ensure compliance with standards like FedRAMP, SOC2, and ISO, alongside robust data encryption and access controls
  
• Supports multi-cloud and hybrid environments with automated deployment, autoscaling, and cross-cluster search for high flexibility
  
• Elasticsearch’s powerful indexing delivers fast query responses, even with large datasets
  

➖ Cons

• Can be costly to use
  
• Managing large-scale Elastic deployments may need operational expertise compared to fully managed solutions
  

💲 Pricing

Elastic Cloud uses a transparent, usage-based pricing model. The standard tier starts at $95/month, with costs scaling based on storage, computing, and additional features.

10. Logz.io

Logz.io is a log management and observability platform designed to simplify troubleshooting, reduce mean time to resolution (MTTR), and optimize costs.

Built with a strong foundation in open-source technologies, including Elasticsearch, Kibana, and Grafana, Logz.io empowers you to scale observability effectively while leveraging the benefits of open-source innovation.

🌟 Key features

• Log management
  
• Infrastructure monitoring
• Distributed tracing
• Multi-tiered storage

➕ Pros

• Data usage controls support budget management with usage caps and team-specific allocations
• Built on open-source technologies like Grafana
• Over 300 integrations enable quick setup and smooth data collection from diverse sources
  
• Data usage controls, such as usage caps and team-specific allocations, support proactive budget management
  

➖ Cons

• Estimating data volumes for cost forecasting can be challenging
  

💲 Pricing

Logz.io uses a consumption-based pricing model, ensuring you only pay for what you use. A 14-day free trial allows teams to explore the platform’s capabilities, while data optimization features can reduce processing costs by 30-50%, helping scale observability without unexpected expenses.

Final thoughts

This guide explores 10 fantastic alternatives, each with its own unique features. We hope you’ve discovered the perfect match for your needs.

Still undecided? No worries! Many of these platforms offer free trials or flexible pricing plans, so you can dive in and see what works best for you.

Thanks for reading, and happy monitoring!

Article by

Stanley Ulili

Stanley Ulili is a technical educator at Better Stack based in Malawi. He specializes in backend development and has freelanced for platforms like DigitalOcean, LogRocket, and AppSignal. Stanley is passionate about making complex topics accessible to developers.

Got an article suggestion? Let us know

Explore more

10 Best Sumo Logic Alternatives in 2023

Sumo Logic offers a good Log Management Solution, but there are a lot of solutions offering better functionality, documentation, and more features.

10 Best Dynatrace Alternatives to Explore in 2023

Dynatrace offers a good solution for log management, but there is still a room for improvement. Let's take a look at the list of alternatives offering more friendly prices, easier onboarding, better design and more.

Top 10 Honeycomb Alternatives 2024

Looking for the top alternatives to Honeycomb for distributed tracing? Check out our guide to the best 10 tools to enhance your observability and monitoring

10 Best Logz.io Alternatives in 2023

Logz.io is an end-to-end cloud monitoring solution allowing you to unify logs, metrics, and trace analytics. It's based on ELK stack, what makes it quite expensive at scale, and is also often hard to start with.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.