Quick Answer
Last verified:

Lightstep pricing varies by team size and features, ranging from $0 to $0 per user/month in 2026. Your actual cost depends on the tier you choose, contract length, and negotiated discounts.

Use the interactive pricing calculator to estimate your exact cost based on team size and requirements.

  • Free tier: No free tier available
  • Billing: Monthly and annual (save 15-20%)
  • Hidden costs: Add ~35% for implementation, support, and training

Lightstep offers 2 pricing tiers: Subscription Unit Plan, Active Service Bundle Plan. The Active Service Bundle Plan plan is not recommended - product being discontinued march 2026. no new customers should adopt this platform..

Compared to other apm & monitoring software, Lightstep is positioned at the budget-friendly price point.

Last verified: January 2026 | Sources: 4 pricing pages and reviews
Lightstep (now ServiceNow Cloud Observability) was a distributed tracing and observability platform designed for modern microservices architectures. The platform specialized in high-fidelity tracing at scale, enabling teams to understand complex service dependencies and quickly diagnose performance issues across distributed systems. Built on OpenTelemetry standards, Lightstep provided powerful analytics for identifying latency issues and service degradation patterns. IMPORTANT: ServiceNow announced end-of-life for Cloud Observability, with support ending March 1, 2026, and no equivalent replacement planned on the ServiceNow platform.

All Lightstep Plans & Pricing

Plan Monthly Annual Best For
Subscription Unit Plan dataIngestion: Based on subscription unitsretention: Configurable Contact Contact NOT RECOMMENDED - Product being discontinued March 2026. Existing customers should migrate to alternatives.
Active Service Bundle Plan dataIngestion: Pay per GB for logs and spansats: Per active time series Contact Contact NOT RECOMMENDED - Product being discontinued March 2026. No new customers should adopt this platform.
View all features by plan

Subscription Unit Plan

  • Distributed tracing
  • Service dependency mapping
  • Trace analytics
  • Active Time Series monitoring
  • Log ingestion and analysis
  • Span data collection
  • Custom dashboards
  • Alerting and notifications
  • OpenTelemetry support
  • API access

Active Service Bundle Plan

  • Active Time Series (ATS) monitoring
  • Log data ingestion by GB
  • Span data collection by GB
  • Service health tracking
  • Performance analytics
  • Distributed tracing
  • Integration with ServiceNow platform
  • Custom dashboards
  • Alerting
  • API access
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Hidden Costs to Budget For

Watch for 8 hidden costs
  • CRITICAL: Product end-of-life March 1, 2026 - no support after that date
  • Migration costs to move to alternative observability platform
  • Data export and transfer fees during migration
  • Potential contract termination fees if leaving before subscription end
  • Retraining costs for team on new platform
  • Re-instrumentation costs for new observability solution
  • Lost historical data if not properly migrated
  • Overlap costs running both platforms during migration
Tip

Ask your Lightstep sales rep about these costs upfront. Getting them in writing before signing can save you from surprise charges later.

Full hidden costs breakdown →

Frequently Asked Questions

01 How much does Lightstep cost?

Pricing varies by plan. Check the official pricing page for current rates.

02 Does Lightstep have a free tier?

Check the pricing section above for free tier availability.

03 What are the main features of Lightstep?

Key features include the items listed in the pricing tiers above.

04 Is Lightstep worth the price?

Value depends on your specific needs and use case. Compare features across plans.