Grafana Cloud vs VictoriaMetrics
Self-hosted for $4/mo on hetzner CAX11, versus $8-$299/user/mo on Grafana Cloud.
Side-by-side
| Grafana Cloud | VictoriaMetrics (self-hosted) | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | $8-$299/user/mo | $4.13/mo flat (any team size) |
| Hosting | Grafana Cloud's servers | Your VPS (hetzner CAX11) |
| Data ownership | Grafana Cloud controls the data | Your disk, your encryption |
| Source code | Closed | Open (Apache-2.0) |
| Customization | API + integrations only | Full source access; modify freely |
| Maintenance burden | Zero | Backups + updates (manual) |
| Health score (ossreplace) | — | 73 / 100 |
Why teams leave Grafana Cloud
- Per-active-user pricing on top of metric/log volume
- Free tier caps trigger forced upgrades
- Long-term data retention costs scale fast
- Egress fees on data export
VictoriaMetrics answers this by: Self-host the open-source Grafana stack and pay only for the VPS hosting it.
The cost math
Assumes 5-person team using Grafana Cloud at the midpoint price ($153.5/user/mo).
| Period | Grafana Cloud | VictoriaMetrics on hetzner | You save |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly | $767.5 | $4.13 | $763.37 |
| Yearly | $9210 | $49.56 | $9160.44 |
| 3 years | $27,630 | $149 | $27,481 |
Deploy VictoriaMetrics now
One-click deploys at the cheapest provider for this workload:
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Common questions
Is VictoriaMetrics a good alternative to Grafana Cloud?
VictoriaMetrics is an open-source, self-hostable alternative to Grafana Cloud with an ossreplace health score of 73/100 — a composite of project activity, maturity, community, security, and adoption. It runs on your own hetzner VPS from $4.13/mo with full source access under the Apache-2.0 license, versus Grafana Cloud's $8–299/user/mo hosted plans.
How much cheaper is VictoriaMetrics than Grafana Cloud?
A 5-person team pays about $767.5/mo on Grafana Cloud. Self-hosting VictoriaMetrics on hetzner CAX11 costs a flat $4.13/mo regardless of team size — roughly $27,481 less over three years (99% lower).
Is VictoriaMetrics hard to self-host?
VictoriaMetrics self-hosts on your own VPS. You handle the install, backups, and updates yourself in exchange for full data ownership and no per-seat fees.
Do you keep control of your data with VictoriaMetrics vs Grafana Cloud?
Yes. Because VictoriaMetrics runs on your own server, the data lives on your disk under your encryption. With Grafana Cloud, Grafana Cloud controls the hosting, storage, and access.