Better Stack

Better Stack brings AI incident investigation, incident management, on-call scheduling, uptime monitoring, status pages, telemetry, error tracking, and real user monitoring into one platform. Its Slack-native AI SRE agent investigates incidents using logs, metrics, traces, errors, and web events. Teams can transform logs and traces with VRL and query them through drag-and-drop tools, PromQL, or SQL. Uptime checks cover HTTP(S) keywords, TCP/UDP ports, SSL, and DNS, and can run as frequently as every 30 seconds. Listed integrations include Slack, Microsoft Teams, Datadog, New Relic, Grafana, Prometheus, PagerDuty, Jira, Zapier, and Google Calendar; iOS and Android apps provide mobile notifications. The free plan includes 10 monitors and heartbeats, one status page, 100,000 exceptions per month, 5,000 session replays, and specified limits on logs, traces, and metrics. Free is available at no cost. Responder costs $29 a month per license when billed annually. Better Stack says it is SOC 2 Type 2 and GDPR compliant, but not HIPAA compliant.

Better Stack combines incident response and monitoring with telemetry and error tracking. Its free plan has defined capacity and retention limits, while Responder starts at $29 a month per license on annual billing.

It suits teams coordinating incident response, on-call work, monitoring, and telemetry. The free plan also offers a starting point for personal projects.

Better Stack brings incident response, uptime monitoring, and observability together for engineering teams that want to investigate alerts using service data in the same platform. It is a strong fit for teams combining on-call response with logs, traces, and error tracking; its separate telemetry quotas and lack of HIPAA compliance narrow the fit.

Overview

The platform covers AI SRE, incident management, on-call, uptime monitoring, status pages, telemetry, error tracking, and real user monitoring. That range suits teams trying to connect operational response with investigation, though the telemetry plans have their own capacity and retention limits.

Better Stack says it is SOC 2 Type 2 and GDPR compliant. Relevant data is encrypted at rest with AES-256 and in transit with HTTPS/TLS, and the service uses regular automated backups and redundant storage where appropriate. EU data is stored by default in GDPR-compliant DIN ISO/IEC 27001-certified data centers; custom data locations are available to enterprise accounts. Better Stack is not HIPAA compliant, so it is not a fit for workloads that require HIPAA compliance.

Key features

Incident response and investigation

On-call scheduling, escalation policies, post-incident reviews, stakeholder updates, and ChatOps incident actions support a workflow that continues beyond alert delivery. The Slack-native AI SRE agent investigates incidents using logs, metrics, traces, errors, and web events. This breadth is useful when teams want response and diagnosis connected, while the Slack-native approach may be less compelling for teams that do not work in Slack.

Monitoring and telemetry

Uptime checks cover HTTP(S) keyword checks, TCP/UDP ports, SSL, and DNS, with checks as frequently as every 30 seconds. That range suits teams monitoring multiple layers of availability. Logs and traces can be transformed with VRL and queried through drag-and-drop, PromQL, or SQL, giving technical teams several ways to explore telemetry. Error tracking works with Sentry SDKs and includes 100,000 exceptions with 90-day error retention.

Integrations and security

Integrations include Slack, Microsoft Teams, Datadog, New Relic, Grafana, Prometheus, PagerDuty, Jira, Zapier, and Google Calendar. The integrations page also lists iOS and Android apps for mobile notifications. Better Stack says it conducts regular third-party penetration testing and frequent code reviews, static analysis, and dependency vulnerability scans.

Pricing

The Free for personal projects plan costs nothing. It includes 10 monitors and heartbeats, one status page, 1,000 status-page subscribers, 100,000 exceptions per month, 5,000 session replays, 3 GB of logs and traces retained for three days, and 30 GB of metrics. The caps make it useful for personal projects and evaluation, but the three-day telemetry retention is brief for teams that need a longer investigation window.

Responder costs $29 a month per license, billed annually. It includes uptime monitoring, incident management, on-call, status pages, and unlimited phone call and SMS alerts. The annual per-license term matters as teams grow; this plan is the clearest fit for teams prioritizing incident response and alerting.

Telemetry plans are billed monthly: Nano — logs and traces costs $30 a month for 40 GB each of traces, logs, and metrics; Micro — logs and traces costs $120 a month for 160 GB each; Mega — logs and traces costs $250 a month for 340 GB each; and Tera — logs and traces costs $500 a month for 700 GB each. Each includes 30-day logs retention. These tiers offer a defined capacity and longer log retention than the free plan, with the right tier depending on volume; teams should account for the separate telemetry spend alongside Responder if they need both.

Platforms

Better Stack supports Android, iOS, web, and API access. Its mobile apps are listed for receiving notifications, making the platform relevant to responders who need alerts away from a desktop.

Who it's for

Better Stack is best suited to engineering and operations teams that want uptime monitoring and incident workflows connected to logs, traces, metrics, and errors. It is a poorer fit for teams that require HIPAA compliance, or for teams whose telemetry needs exceed the free quotas but do not justify one of the monthly capacity tiers.

Pros and cons

• Broad operational coverage: Incident management, on-call, status pages, uptime checks, telemetry, and error tracking sit within one platform.
• Flexible telemetry queries: Drag-and-drop, PromQL, and SQL give technical teams different ways to query logs and traces.
• Useful free capacity for personal projects: The free plan includes 10 monitors and heartbeats, 100,000 monthly exceptions, and 30 GB of metrics.
• Short free log and trace retention: Three days can limit how far back teams can investigate without moving to a paid tier.
• Telemetry has separate capacity pricing: Monthly log, trace, and metrics tiers start at $30 a month, which can add to the cost for teams also buying response features.
• No HIPAA compliance: Teams with HIPAA requirements should choose another platform.

Alternatives

AlertOps is worth comparing for teams seeking a free plan capped at five users, with basic alert routing, three escalation policies, and more than 200 integrations. incident.io suits teams looking for free Slack or Microsoft Teams-native incident response, single-team on-call, a status page, and essential incident automation. OpsKnight is an option for teams that want a free, self-hosted community edition under AGPL-3.0-only, with one status page per install.

PagerDuty offers a free incident management plan for five users with one on-call schedule and one escalation policy. ilert has a free plan for up to five users, one status page, and 100 SMS or voice notifications. KIX offers a free KIX Start tier with limited functionality and no support or maintenance. SIGNL4 has a free Starter plan for up to five users, including push alerts, a native mobile app, and ad-hoc duty management. xMatters provides a free plan for up to five users with a limited feature set.

Readers can also compare Better Stack with IT Incident Management Software, Internet Performance Monitoring Software, Website Monitoring Software, and Log Management Software.

Verdict

Choose Better Stack if your team wants incident response, on-call, uptime checks, and telemetry tied together, and can work within its capacity-based pricing. The combination of response tools and multiple ways to query telemetry is its strongest case. Look elsewhere if HIPAA compliance is required, or if the free plan's three-day log and trace retention is too short and the monthly telemetry tiers do not suit your budget.