When evaluating observability platforms, most teams focus on per-host pricing. But the real cost lies in data ingestion fees, retention limits, and vendor lock-in. In this article, we break down the total cost of ownership for SaaS vs on-premise observability.
The Ingestion Tax
Most SaaS observability vendors charge per GB of data ingested. As your infrastructure grows, this becomes the dominant cost driver — often exceeding the base subscription by 3-5x.
Retention vs. Cost
Need to keep logs for 90 days for compliance? That is a premium tier feature with most vendors. On-premise solutions let you define your own retention policies without per-GB penalties.
The ByLoniS Approach
At ByLoniS, we believe observability pricing should be predictable. Our per-host model includes unlimited ingestion and configurable retention — deployed on your infrastructure.