DevVersus

SigNoz vs Helios(2026)

SigNoz is better for teams that need open source (mit). Helios is the stronger choice if test generation unique. SigNoz is open-source (from $0) and Helios is freemium (from $0).

Full feature breakdown, pricing details, and pros & cons below.

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SigNoz logo

SigNoz

open-source

SigNoz is an open-source observability platform that unifies distributed tracing, metrics, and logs in a single UI — built on ClickHouse for performance, compatible with OpenTelemetry.

Starting at $0

Visit SigNoz
Helios logo

Helios

freemium

Helios provides distributed tracing and testing automation for microservices — capturing real traffic flows to create automated tests and giving developers deep service-level visibility.

Starting at $0

Visit Helios

How Do SigNoz and Helios Compare on Features?

FeatureSigNozHelios
Pricing modelopen-sourcefreemium
Starting price$0$0
Distributed tracing
Metrics monitoring
Log management
OpenTelemetry native
ClickHouse backend
Alerts
Service maps
Test generation from traffic
Service dependency map
OTel support
CI/CD integration
Slack notifications
Free tier

SigNoz Pros and Cons vs Helios

S

SigNoz

+Open source (MIT)
+Three pillars unified
+OTel native
+Free self-hosted
Self-hosting complexity
Cloud pricing less competitive
Less mature than Datadog/Dynatrace
H

Helios

+Test generation unique
+Developer-first
+Free plan available
+Good microservices focus
Very small community
Limited to trace-based observability
Less monitoring depth

Should You Use SigNoz or Helios?

Choose SigNoz if…

  • Open source (MIT)
  • Three pillars unified
  • OTel native

Choose Helios if…

  • Test generation unique
  • Developer-first
  • Free plan available

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