🔓 1. Authentication & Access Control
Feature
Free
Paid
Basic auth (manual)
✅
✅
SSO (OAuth/SAML/LDAP/AD)
❌
✅
Fine-grained access control (per dashboard, per team)
❌
✅
Paid Benefit : Enterprise-grade access control, audit logs, and secure SSO for teams.
Feature
Free
Paid
Built-in and most open-source plugins
✅
✅
Premium plugins (e.g. Splunk, ServiceNow, Oracle DB, Snowflake)
❌
✅
Paid Benefit : Access to enterprise connectors without building custom bridges.
☁️ 3. Hosting, Scaling & Maintenance
Feature
Free/Self-hosted
Grafana Cloud
Manual server management, upgrades
✅
❌
Managed and scalable (SaaS)
❌
✅
HA and backup handled by Grafana
❌
✅
Paid Benefit : No need to maintain infrastructure; Grafana takes care of hosting, scaling, security patches, and backups.
📥 4. Increased Usage Limits (Grafana Cloud)
Limit
Free
Pro/Advanced
Data retention
14 days
13 months+
Alerting evaluations
Limited
Higher frequency
Users
3 (Cloud Free)
5+ (more in Enterprise)
Paid Benefit : Longer data retention, more users, and higher alert throughput.
📦 5. Enterprise Alerting & Reporting
Feature
Free
Paid
Basic alerting (per panel)
✅
✅
Grafana Alerting (unified alerts)
✅
✅
Enterprise alert routing, silences, and escalations
❌
✅
Scheduled PDF Reports
❌
✅
Paid Benefit : Powerful alert workflows and regular PDF reports for stakeholders.
Feature
Free
Paid
Community support only
✅
✅
Dedicated support / SLAs / onboarding help
❌
✅
Paid Benefit : Professional help from Grafana engineers with SLAs.
🛡️ 7. Security & Compliance
Feature
Free
Paid
Basic HTTPS
✅
✅
Audit logging, compliance, SOC 2, HIPAA
❌
✅
Paid Benefit : Necessary for regulated industries or compliance-heavy environments.
Situation
Recommendation
Small team, low budget, full control
✅ Self-hosted Grafana is great
Need LDAP/SSO, advanced security, or support
🔁 Consider Grafana Enterprise
Don’t want to manage infrastructure
✅ Use Grafana Cloud Pro/Advanced
Enterprise-scale monitoring with SLAs
💼 Go with Grafana Enterprise
