Today we’re introducing a new pricing model that reflects what we’ve learned about the many ways in which our customers use our service, and the good feedback we’ve received on our current “per measurement” pricing model since we launched our service. Before delving in the details, here’s a summary of the changes:
- We’re now charging “per data stream” instead of “per measurement”. This gives us more flexibility to price for value, for example based on resolution and retention. We use this flexibility to reduce costs for high resolution data streams and charge a fairer (higher) price for low resolution data streams.
- We now have a free “Developer” plan that includes 100 data streams that are limited in resolution and retention. Users of the Developer plan have access to our knowledge base, and “best effort” chat and email support.
- For unlimited use of our service and priority access to email and live chat support you can use our pay-per-use “Production” plan. There is a minimum charge of $5/mo. for this plan.
If you currently have a paid or trial account you will be able to choose between continuing on the old or the new pricing model. For new users the new pricing is effective immediately.
Why are we changing our pricing?
These are some of the things we’ve learned since we launched our service, that are reflected in our new pricing model:
- Some find us too expensive for use cases that require high resolution data streams (sampling intervals of 30 sec. or less).
- When used for low resolution data streams, such as business metrics, our pricing does not reflect the value we provide. Quite a few customers have told us that we do not charge them enough for the benefits they get from our service.
- Some customers use less than $1 in services per month. As the number of users of our service grows, we need to make sure that we can continue to provide great support and reflect the value of this in our pricing..
- Though most customers seem to like pay-per-use pricing, some are concerned about inadvertent high charges and a few have expressed interest in subscription pricing.
- Some find the per measurement pricing non-intuitive and/or confusing.
How does the new pricing work?
We charge per data stream, based on its resolution.
A data stream is defined by a metric and a source, for example, the metric could be CPU load and the source a specific server instance. At this time we support resolutions up to 5 sec.
We offer a 30 day unlimited free trial during which you have unrestricted use of our service. After the trial period you can sign up for the Production plan or continue with the more limited Developer plan.
Per data stream charges increase with resolution. For example, we charge $0.30/mo. for a data stream with 5 sec. resolution, and $0.05/mo for a data stream with 5 min. resolution. As compared to our current pricing, data streams with 5-30 sec. resolution will be less expensive (e.g. a 5 sec. resolution data stream will cost less than 30% of what it costs today), 60 sec. resolution data streams will cost about the same, and data streams with >60 sec. resolution will be more expensive.
Developer plan.
The Developer plan allows you to send us up to 100 data streams with a maximum resolution of 60 sec. and a 1 day retention period, or a maximum resolution of 5 min. and a 2 week retention period. The plan includes 10 alerts, 2 annotation streams, one dashboard, access to our Knowledge Base and “best effort” email and chat room support.
Production plan.
The Production plan has a minimum charge of $5/mo, for which you get unlimited access to our service, and priority access to email, and live chat support.
For convenience we list our prices “per data stream, per month”, but we charge you per data stream per hour (we assume you’re not really interested in knowing that a 60 sec. resolution data stream will cost you about $0.000139 per hour).
Only pay for the data we keep.
Librato now offers “service side aggregation”. You can use this to combine multiple streams into a single stream, for example to combine streams originating from multiple processes into a single application level stream. If you’re sampling data at a higher resolution than you want to keep it, you can also use this to let us aggregate data points and store the stream at lower resolution. The good thing is that we only charge you for the aggregated data streams we store for you.
Pay as you go.
By default, we’ll continue to charge your credit card for your use of our service at the end of each service month (see comments on subscription pricing below).
Volume discounts.
We offer volume discounts for customers consuming more than $400/mo in services.
Optional “cap”.
In the near future we will allow you to set a “not to exceed” amount for your monthly charges and alert you if you’re on a path to exceeding your monthly cap. Until the monthly cap is supported in our service, you can contact us to set a cap if this is important for you.
If you exceed the cap, we will continue to accept your data, but you will not have access to the data until you increase the cap, or the start of the next service month. We will not delete or stop accepting your data because you exceed your cap.
Optional monthly subscription.
A few customers have expressed interest in a subscription with fixed monthly payments. Although we’re not making this generally available at this time, we have devised a “define your own subscription” scheme, which we will make available to customers on request.
Where can I find more details?
You can find a price calculator and other information on our pricing page. Further details can be found in our Knowledge Base.
When will the changes be effective?
If you do not currently have a Librato account, the new pricing is effective today.
I am an existing customer; how will this affect me?
If you are an existing customer you have the choice to stay with the current pricing or switch to the new pricing. To help you make the choice we will show you how your charges under the new pricing will differ from those under the old pricing. Once you’ve switched to the new pricing, you cannot go back to the old pricing, but you can stick with the old pricing and decide to switch to the new pricing at a later time. If you do not tell us what you want, we’ll continue to charge you based on the old pricing model.
I’m a trial user, how will this affect me?
At any time during the trial, you will be able to sign up for the Production plan. If you do not sign up for the Production plan during your trial period you will be given a choice to continue under the Production plan or the Developer plan at the end of your trial. If you select the Developer plan you will be able to upgrade to the Production plan later.
If you started your trial before today’s announcement, and prefer to be charged according to the old pricing model or would like to compare your estimated charges under the old and the new pricing model, you can contact us at support@librato.com. We will switch you to the old model if that is what you prefer; like all existing customers, you’ll be able to switch to the new pricing model at a later time.
My trial has expired but I’d like to start using your service, how does this affect me?
The same rules as for current trial users who are at the end of their trial apply for you (see above).
If you have any questions or feedback, please contact us at support@librato.com or stop by in our support chatroom.
