KalDB delivers the power of Splunk and Datadog without the astronomical per-GB pricing, unpredictable bills, and loss of data sovereignty.
Why teams are abandoning per-GB pricing models
Per-GB ingestion pricing means bills spike with traffic. A successful product launch can bankrupt your observability budget.
To control costs, teams sample or drop logs. When incidents happen, the data you need is often missing.
Long-term retention is prohibitively expensive. Compliance requirements force painful tradeoffs.
Proprietary query languages and formats trap your data. Migration becomes a multi-quarter project.
Your logs leave your infrastructure. For regulated industries, this creates compliance nightmares.
Complex queries time out or get throttled. Cardinality limits restrict what you can analyze.
Sensitive log data leaves your network. Third-party breaches put your data at risk.
Can't run in your own cloud account. No way to meet strict data residency requirements.
Engineering teams argue with finance over log budgets. Observability becomes a cost center, not an enabler.
Real cost comparison for 10TB/month log ingestion
Why data sovereignty matters
| Feature | Splunk/Datadog | KalDB |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing Model | Per-GB ingestion | S3 storage + compute |
| Self-Hosted Option | No (or very limited) | Yes, Apache 2.0 |
| Data Residency | Vendor's infrastructure | Your cloud account |
| Retention | 15-30 days typical | Unlimited (S3) |
| Query Language | Proprietary (SPL, etc.) | OpenSearch/Lucene |
| Grafana Compatible | Limited | Full compatibility |
| Cost at 10TB/month | $100k-$150k/year | ~$15k/year |
| Vendor Lock-in | High | None (open source) |
No per-GB surprises. Pay for S3 storage and compute. Budget with confidence.
Your logs never leave your infrastructure. Meet any compliance requirement.
Keep logs forever at S3 prices. No more deleting data to control costs.
OpenSearch-compatible API. Standard tools, no proprietary languages.
Try KalDB open source today or talk to us about production deployment