Cost Optimization

Medium

· SaaS, Startup, Enterprise, DevOps

Logging Cost Optimization

Cut log management costs by 80-90% by switching from SaaS platforms to self-hosted LogTide. Real TCO comparison with numbers.

80-90% cost reduction No per-GB pricing Unlimited users Infrastructure-only costs

Log management costs are the fastest-growing line item in many engineering budgets. If you’re spending $5K-50K+/month on Datadog, Splunk, or Elastic Cloud, this guide shows you exactly how much you can save with LogTide.

The SaaS Logging Cost Problem

How SaaS Pricing Works

Most SaaS logging platforms charge based on data volume:

Platform	Pricing Model	Typical Cost (100 GB/day)
Datadog	$0.10-$1.70/GB ingested + per-user	$3,000-$15,000/month
Splunk Cloud	$150-$1,800/GB/day indexed	$15,000-$180,000/year
Elastic Cloud	$0.274/GB storage + compute	$2,000-$8,000/month
New Relic	$0.30/GB ingested (beyond free)	$900-$3,000/month
Grafana Cloud	$0.50/GB logs	$1,500-$5,000/month

The Hidden Costs

Volume-based pricing creates perverse incentives:

// ❌ BAD: Engineers stop logging to save money
if (process.env.NODE_ENV === 'production') {
  // "We can't afford to log debug data"
  logger.setLevel('error');
}

// ❌ BAD: Sampling reduces visibility
const SAMPLE_RATE = 0.01; // Only log 1% of requests
if (Math.random() < SAMPLE_RATE) {
  logger.info('Request processed', metadata);
}

Consequences of under-logging:

Missed bugs that only appear in specific conditions
Security incidents detected days late
Longer MTTR (Mean Time to Resolution) during outages
Compliance gaps (audit trails with holes)

Cost Growth Is Exponential

As your application grows, log volume grows faster:

Stage	Daily Log Volume	Datadog Cost/Month	Splunk Cost/Year
Seed (2 services)	5 GB/day	$150-$500	$9,000-$18,000
Growth (10 services)	50 GB/day	$1,500-$5,000	$90,000-$180,000
Scale (50 services)	500 GB/day	$15,000-$50,000	$900,000+
Enterprise (200+ services)	2 TB/day	$60,000-$200,000	$3,600,000+

The LogTide Approach: Infrastructure-Only Costs

LogTide is self-hosted. You pay for compute and storage, not per-GB.

TCO Comparison: 100 GB/Day

Datadog (SaaS):

Log ingestion: 100 GB × $0.10 × 30 = $300/month (cheapest tier)
Log retention (15 days): included in ingestion
10 users × $23/user = $230/month
Cloud SIEM: 100 GB × $0.20 × 30 = $600/month
Total: ~$1,130/month minimum (often 3-5x higher with retention and features)

Splunk Cloud (SaaS):

100 GB/day license: ~$15,000-$50,000/year
Total: ~$1,250-$4,166/month

LogTide (Self-hosted on typical cloud provider):

VPS (8 vCPU, 32 GB RAM): $150-$200/month
SSD storage (2 TB): $50-$100/month
Backup storage: $20-$40/month
Total: ~$220-$340/month

Savings: 70-90% compared to Datadog, 80-95% compared to Splunk.

TCO Comparison: 500 GB/Day

Cost Item	Datadog	Splunk Cloud	LogTide
Ingestion/License	$5,000-$15,000/mo	$75,000-$150,000/yr	$0
Retention (30 days)	$1,500/mo	Included	$0
Users (20)	$460/mo	Included	$0
SIEM	$3,000/mo	$25,000/yr extra	$0 (built-in)
Infrastructure	N/A	N/A	$500-$800/mo
Monthly Total	$10,000-$20,000	$8,300-$14,500	$500-$800
Annual Total	$120,000-$240,000	$100,000-$175,000	$6,000-$9,600

What You Get With LogTide

For that infrastructure cost, you get:

Unlimited log ingestion (no per-GB fees)
Unlimited users (no per-seat licensing)
Built-in SIEM with Sigma detection rules
Incident management included
MITRE ATT&CK mapping included
Full-text search across all logs
Real-time streaming via SSE
OpenTelemetry native support
REST API with SDKs for Node.js, Python, PHP, Go, Kotlin, C#

Implementation: Migrating to Save Costs

1. Calculate Your Current Spend

Before migrating, understand your baseline:

# If using Datadog, check your billing
# Settings → Organization → Billing

# If using Splunk, check license usage
# Settings → Licensing → Usage Report

# Estimate daily volume from your current platform
# This is the number you'll use to size LogTide

2. Size Your LogTide Deployment

Daily Volume	CPU	RAM	Storage (30d retention)	Monthly Cost
10 GB/day	4 cores	16 GB	500 GB SSD	$80-$120
50 GB/day	8 cores	32 GB	2 TB SSD	$200-$350
100 GB/day	8 cores	32 GB	4 TB SSD	$300-$500
500 GB/day	16 cores	64 GB	20 TB SSD	$800-$1,200
1 TB/day	32 cores	128 GB	40 TB SSD	$1,500-$2,500

3. Deploy LogTide

# Clone and configure
git clone https://github.com/logtide-dev/logtide.git
cd logtide/docker

cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env with your settings

# Start
docker compose up -d

# Verify
curl http://localhost:8080/health

4. Migrate Gradually

Run both platforms in parallel during migration:

import { LogTideClient } from '@logtide/sdk-node';

const logtide = new LogTideClient({
  apiUrl: process.env.LOGTIDE_API_URL!,
  apiKey: process.env.LOGTIDE_API_KEY!,
  // Or use a DSN string instead:
  // dsn: process.env.LOGTIDE_DSN,
});

// Dual-write during migration
function log(level: string, message: string, meta?: object) {
  // Keep sending to existing platform
  existingLogger[level](message, meta);

  // Also send to LogTide
  logtide[level]('my-service', message, meta);
}

5. Validate and Cut Over

After 1-2 weeks of parallel operation:

Compare log counts between platforms
Verify search results match
Test alert rules in LogTide
Confirm team is comfortable with LogTide UI
Switch off the old platform
Cancel SaaS subscription

Real-World Example: B2B SaaS Startup

Company profile:

15 microservices
80 GB/day log volume
12 engineers
Previously on Datadog

Before (Datadog):

Log ingestion: $2,400/month
APM: $1,200/month
Infrastructure monitoring: $600/month
12 users × $23 = $276/month
Total: $4,476/month ($53,712/year)

After (LogTide on Hetzner):

Dedicated server (AMD Ryzen 9, 64 GB RAM, 2×2 TB NVMe): €65/month
Backup storage: €10/month
Total: €75/month (~$82/month, ~$984/year)

Annual savings: $52,728 (98%)

The team also stopped sampling logs and enabled debug-level logging in production, improving their MTTR by 40%.

When LogTide Isn’t the Right Choice

Be honest with yourself about trade-offs:

LogTide might not fit if:

You need APM/traces as primary use case (LogTide focuses on logs + SIEM)
You have no DevOps capacity to manage infrastructure
You need 100+ pre-built integrations with cloud services
Compliance requires a SOC2-certified SaaS vendor

LogTide is ideal if:

Logging costs are a significant budget concern
You value data ownership and privacy (GDPR)
You need SIEM capabilities without extra cost
You have basic infrastructure management skills
You want to log everything without worrying about per-GB costs

Cost Optimization Checklist

Common Pitfalls

1. “Self-hosted is too much work”

LogTide runs as a single Docker Compose stack. If you can run PostgreSQL, you can run LogTide.

Reality: Initial setup takes 1-2 hours. Ongoing maintenance is minimal (backups, updates).

2. “We’ll lose features”

LogTide includes SIEM, alerting, and incident management that cost extra on SaaS platforms.

Reality: You gain features (Sigma rules, MITRE ATT&CK) that would cost $10K+/year on Datadog or Splunk.

3. “The savings aren’t worth the risk”

Run both platforms in parallel during migration. Zero risk.

Reality: Most teams complete migration in 1-2 weeks with no incidents.

Next Steps

Docker Deployment - Production deployment guide
Kubernetes Integration - K8s deployment
Security Monitoring - Built-in SIEM features
GDPR Compliance - Data privacy benefits

Ready to cut your logging costs?

Deploy LogTide - Free, open-source
Join GitHub Discussions - Ask migration questions

Edit this page on GitHub