AppSignal
Dutch app monitoring with published pricing from free, logging as a paid add-on, no surprise overages
Quick Overview
| Company | AppSignal B.V. |
|---|---|
| Category | Observability & Log Management |
| Headquarters | Amsterdam, Netherlands |
| Founded | 2012, by Roy Tomeij, Thijs Cadier and Wes Oudshoorn |
| EU Presence | EU (Netherlands) |
| Open Source | Not stated; closed-source SaaS |
| Compliance | GDPR-compliant; HIPAA Compliance available as a paid add-on |
| Pricing | Free from €0/month; paid from €219/year (€18.25/month billed yearly), published |
| Free Option | Permanent free tier: 30K requests/month, 1GB logging, 5-day retention, no card required |
| Replaces | Datadog, New Relic, Honeycomb |
Detailed Review
AppSignal is a Dutch application-monitoring platform run by AppSignal B.V., founded in 2012 by Roy Tomeij, Thijs Cadier and Wes Oudshoorn and still headquartered in the Netherlands.
It covers error tracking, performance monitoring, host metrics, anomaly detection, uptime monitoring and process check-ins across Ruby, Elixir, Node.js, JavaScript, Python, Go, Java, PHP and Rust, with OpenTelemetry, Vercel, Kubernetes and AWS CloudWatch integrations. Logging arrived as a genuine product line rather than a bolt-on: every plan includes 1GB of log storage, with long-term log retention available as a paid add-on.
Pricing is published and unusually plain for this category: a permanent free plan covers 30,000 requests a month and 1GB of logging with five-day retention, no card required.
The paid plan starts at €219 a year (€18.25 a month billed yearly) for 250,000 requests, with long-term log storage and a HIPAA Compliance add-on both priced at €89 a month. AppSignal's stated policy is "never pay more than agreed upfront" — monitoring keeps working past the plan's limit rather than cutting off or silently billing an overage, which is the opposite of how most usage-metered observability vendors handle a traffic spike.
The trade-off is depth. AppSignal covers nine languages against Datadog's dozens, its distributed tracing is shallower than a dedicated APM specialist, and long-term log analytics sits behind a separate add-on rather than being included outright. For a small team on one of the supported languages, that is a fair exchange for pricing it can actually plan around.
What AppSignal does well
- Published pricing with a genuine permanent free tier and no surprise overage billing
- Logging built into every plan rather than sold as a separate product from a different vendor
- Covers nine languages and frameworks, including Ruby, Elixir, Node, Python, Go, Java, PHP and Rust
- Dutch company and EU jurisdiction, with a HIPAA Compliance add-on for regulated buyers
Where AppSignal falls short
- Long-term log storage and HIPAA Compliance are separate €89/month add-ons, not included
- Distributed tracing depth trails dedicated APM and observability specialists
- No infrastructure-wide metrics store or log-search language comparable to Elastic or Grafana
Standout feature. A published, capped price with a stated no-overage policy: the monitoring keeps running past the plan limit instead of cutting off or silently billing more, which is rare in usage-metered observability.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- First-party support for Ruby, Elixir, Node.js, Python and front-end JavaScript
- ISO 27001 and SOC 2, GDPR, HIPAA available as an add-on
- Hosted on Worldstream in the Netherlands, with only three published subprocessors
- Errors, performance, logs, uptime and cron monitoring in one product
- Unlimited users and applications on every plan, including the free one
Cons
- Backups sit on Amazon Web Services EMEA SARL, so the stack is not European end to end
- No self-hosting option at any price
- Per-request pricing punishes high-traffic, low-value endpoints
- Long-term log retention is a separate €89 per month add-on
- Go, Java, PHP and Rust arrive only through OpenTelemetry, not a first-party SDK
Alternatives to AppSignal
Frequently Asked Questions
What is AppSignal?
AppSignal is Dutch app monitoring with published pricing from free, logging as a paid add-on, no surprise overages.
Where is AppSignal based?
AppSignal is operated by AppSignal B.V., a Dutch company with its registered office in the Netherlands, which places it under EU (Netherlands) law.
What does AppSignal cost?
Free plan: €0/month, 30K requests, 1GB logging, 5-day retention, no card required. Paid plan: €219/year (€18.25/month billed yearly), 250K requests/month, 1GB logging included. Long-term log storage add-on €89/month; HIPAA Compliance add-on €89/month. No overage charges.
Who is AppSignal best for?
A small Ruby, Elixir, Node, Python or PHP team that wants error tracking, host metrics and now logging under one published price, without a sales call or a surprise invoice after a traffic spike.
Is AppSignal a good alternative to Datadog or New Relic?
AppSignal is built as a European alternative to US-based observability platforms like Datadog and New Relic. It covers far fewer languages and lacks the deep infrastructure and distributed-tracing depth of the large platforms, so check the review above for where it genuinely differs before switching.
How does AppSignal compare to other Observability & Log Management tools?
AppSignal is one of several European Observability & Log Management tools covered on this site. See the full Observability & Log Management category page for how it ranks against its closest European competitors.