kitio.aiGrafana Cloud vs Herald
A side-by-side look at pricing plans, free tiers, features, pros and cons, updated for 2026. Grafana Cloud starts at $19/mo and Herald starts at See pricing page. Check both pricing pages for current plans.
At a glance
Best for
Pricing model
Starting price
Free plan
Made by
Based in
Rating
Key features
- Grafana Assistant
- Investigations for root cause
- Agent Observability
- Adaptive Telemetry
- Metrics, logs and traces
- Incident response
- Predictive issue detection
- Root cause analysis
- Suggested resolutions
- CLI agent
- Slack and Teams collaboration
- Bring your own model
| Feature | Grafana Cloud | Herald |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Observability cloud with an AI assistant and agent monitoring | AI SRE that finds production issues and their root cause early |
| Category | Coding | Coding |
| Pricing model | Freemium | Freemium |
| Starting price | $19/mo | See pricing page |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Made by | Grafana Labs | Herald |
| Based in | United States | – |
| Rating | No ratings yet | No ratings yet |
| Key features |
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Pricing compared
Grafana Cloud starts at $19/mo and Herald starts at See pricing page. Check both pricing pages for current plans.
Free plan
Cheapest paid plan
Top plan
Free trial
3 plans
Free
Free
- All services with usage limits
- 10k active series
- 14-day retention
- Community support
Pro
$19/mo
- Platform fee plus usage
- Pay as you go above free tier
- 13-month metric retention
- 8x5 email support
Enterprise
From $25,000/yr
- Premium support
- Custom retention
- Federal or private cloud options
4 plans
Hobby
Free
- Herald CLI agent
- Local integrations
- Limited agent requests
Individual
$20/mo billed yearly
- Root cause analysis
- Predictive detection
- Suggested resolutions
Teams
$40/user/mo billed yearly
- Per user
- Cloud agent and integrations
- Slack and Teams collaboration
Enterprise
Contact sales
- Custom deployment
Prices in USD, checked Oct 29, 2026 or later. Plans change often, so confirm on each tool's site before you buy.
Pros and cons
Grafana Cloud
- Free plan includes all services
- Built on open standards
- Tools to trim telemetry cost
- Usage-based fees are hard to predict
- Free plan retention is only 14 days
- Support is email only on Pro
Herald
- Free CLI tier without a card
- Catches issues before alerts fire
- Bring your own model or cloud
- Cloud agent needs the Teams plan
- Per-user pricing for teams
- Recently rebranded from RunLLM
Which one should you choose?
Choose Grafana Cloud if you want:
- Free plan includes all services
- Built on open standards
- Tools to trim telemetry cost
Watch out: usage-based fees are hard to predict.
Choose Herald if you want:
- Free CLI tier without a card
- Catches issues before alerts fire
- Bring your own model or cloud
Watch out: cloud agent needs the teams plan.
Grafana Cloud vs Herald FAQ
What is the difference between Grafana Cloud and Herald?
Grafana Cloud: Observability cloud with an AI assistant and agent monitoring. Herald: AI SRE that finds production issues and their root cause early. Both are coding tools.
Is Grafana Cloud or Herald cheaper?
Grafana Cloud starts at $19/mo and Herald starts at See pricing page. Check both pricing pages for current plans.
Do Grafana Cloud and Herald have free plans?
Grafana Cloud: Yes. Herald: Yes.
Who makes Grafana Cloud?
Grafana Cloud is made by Grafana Labs, based in United States.
Who makes Herald?
Herald is made by Herald.
Which should I choose, Grafana Cloud or Herald?
Choose Grafana Cloud if you value free plan includes all services and built on open standards. Choose Herald if you value free cli tier without a card and catches issues before alerts fire.