AppSignal

What it is for

AppSignal is a hosted APM desk: you open a custom graph, and Free is $0 (30K requests / month). Use it when the job is errors, traces, and host gauges you start at $0, not when you need a $20 chat seat.

What makes it unique: the cover is the official AppSignal graph builder (disk_written / disk_io_written GAUGE, area chart 13:00–14:00) from the docs still — not a pricing card. The series itself is ops of Metrics. AppSignal bills requests + add-ons, not a chat seat.

Key features

• Metrics / graphs — a custom chart you build from a gauge or counter (cover still; docs). One graph. Cover disk_written and the 13:00–14:00 area sit here.
• Errors — an exception you triage (report, tags, issue-tracker) (pricing Error tracking). An error, not a graph. Real-time alerts sit here.
• Performance — a request / query timeline (pricing Performance monitoring). A trace, not an error. Slow queries and N+1 sit here.
• Hosts — CPU, disk, load, memory on the box (pricing Host monitoring). A host, not a trace. Cover disk_io_written is a host metric you chart.
• Uptime — a public status ping from four locations (pricing Uptime monitoring). A check, not a host. Free public status page sits here.

The agent / install snippet is install. Free / paid request tiles are the meter. Logging is a paid add-on — not a sixth desk we fold into Metrics.

Who it's for

Best fit: app teams who will stay on Free at $0 (30K requests, 1 GB logs, 5-day retention) while they open a first disk graph, then buy the paid APM tile at $23.25 / month billed yearly ($279 / year, 250K requests) when they outgrow the free bucket.

Pricing

Verified 2026-10-23 (Asia/Shanghai) from appsignal.com/plans. The page we fetched was on the Yearly toggle. Tiles print Free plan $0 and paid application monitoring $279 / year ($23.25 / month).

• Free — $0. Permanent free plan. 30K requests / month. 1 GB logging. 5-day retention. 30-day trial of paid features with no card.
• Application monitoring (yearly tile) — $279 / year ($23.25 / month billed yearly). 250K requests / month on the tile we fetched.
• Long-term log storage — $89 / month. Export to your S3-compatible bucket.
• HIPAA Compliance — $89 / month.
• Monthly toggle exists on the page; do not invent a monthly APM dollar if you only fetched Yearly.

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Limitations / costs

• Free is 30K requests / month and 5-day retention. A busier week is the $279 / year tile.
• $23.25 is the yearly tile. Flip Monthly on appsignal.com/plans before you budget a month-to-month card.
• An APM desk, not a warehouse. For Honeycomb’s trace tiles see Honeycomb. For Dash0 see Dash0.

Alternatives

• Honeycomb — high-cardinality traces when you want Honeycomb’s query desk, not AppSignal’s $0 / $23.25 graph builder.
• Dash0 — OpenTelemetry-native observability when you want Dash0’s tile, not AppSignal’s Ruby-first APM.
• SigNoz — self-hostable traces / metrics / logs when you do not want AppSignal’s hosted $0 / $279 tiles.

Official tutorial

Official AppSignal channel video: AppSignal in 5 minutes: A quickstart guide (oEmbed author: AppSignal). First-party quickstart; the graph-builder still is the cover. Errors on the video are a second desk, not generate-on-Metrics.

Written path: appsignal.com/plans plus the graph-builder still.

Website

https://www.appsignal.com

Repository

https://github.com/appsignal

Source

Catalog row curated for AI Tools Nav. Cover is the official AppSignal custom graph builder from the docs still. Dollars checked on appsignal.com/plans (Free $0; APM $279/year or $23.25/month yearly; log storage $89/mo; HIPAA $89/mo). Tutorial oEmbed author: AppSignal.

Last verified

2026-10-23 (Asia/Shanghai) editorial check.