In today’s cloud-driven world, every business relies on digital systems. Whether it’s a SaaS app, a microservices backend, or a Kubernetes cluster, downtime or performance issues can ruin user trust. That’s why observability is critical. But here’s the challenge — most tools are complex, expensive, and lock you in. Enter dash0, the OpenTelemetry-native observability platform built to give developers, SREs, and platform engineers control, clarity, and cost transparency.
What is Dash0 and Why Does It Matter?
At its simplest, dash0 is a platform that helps you monitor, understand, and troubleshoot your applications by unifying metrics, traces, and logs. But unlike traditional tools, it’s designed from the ground up to work with OpenTelemetry (OTel) standards. This means your data remains portable, vendor-neutral, and structured with context you can use immediately.
The OpenTelemetry Advantage
Keeping Telemetry Open and Flexible
While other platforms force data into proprietary formats, dash0 embraces OpenTelemetry as it is. This approach ensures freedom from vendor lock-in and lets teams integrate seamlessly with any ecosystem.
Automatic Context with Semantic Conventions
Because dash0 respects OTel conventions, telemetry comes pre-loaded with rich attributes like service names, namespaces, versions, and status codes. That context makes querying and troubleshooting much easier.
Dash0 Features You’ll Love
1. Metrics with Long-Term Retention
Metrics are the pulse of your system. With dash0, you can retain metrics long enough to analyze trends, compare historical SLIs, and catch regressions.
2. Distributed Tracing Made Simple
Traces show how requests flow across services. dash0 gives you full trace search, filtering, and correlation so you can pinpoint bottlenecks quickly.
3. Logs That Actually Connect
Instead of dumping logs into a silo, dash0 ties them to traces and metrics. This way, you can jump from an error spike to the exact log entries that caused it.
4. Service Maps and Dashboards
Visualizing dependencies is simple with dash0. Out-of-the-box dashboards and service maps mirror your actual architecture, so you always see the bigger picture.
5. Config as Code
Manage dashboards, alerts, and settings as code — because dash0 believes observability should align with your DevOps workflows.
6. Alerting and Synthetic Checks
Create alerts on real metrics and simulate user flows with synthetic monitoring. Dash0 ensures you catch issues before users do.
Dash0 for Different Teams
For Developers
Debugging performance or functional issues becomes easier when metrics, traces, and logs are connected in dash0.
For SREs
Shorter MTTR (mean time to resolution) thanks to seamless pivoting between signals.
For Platform Engineers
Kubernetes-native visibility makes dash0 a natural choice for infrastructure teams.
Why Dash0 Beats Traditional Observability Tools
1. Transparent Pricing
While many vendors charge for hosts, queries, or “data packs,” dash0 charges based on telemetry units. That’s predictable and fair.
2. Scalability with ClickHouse
At its core, dash0 leverages ClickHouse for efficient, columnar storage — making even high-cardinality queries lightning fast.
3. Freedom from Vendor Lock-In
Because everything stays in OpenTelemetry format, you’re never stuck. Unlike with Datadog or New Relic, your data is always yours.
Dash0 vs Competitors
Dash0 vs Datadog
Datadog is feature-rich but expensive and closed. Dash0 is open, affordable, and portable.
Dash0 vs New Relic
New Relic uses proprietary telemetry. Dash0 respects OTel standards, ensuring easier integration.
Dash0 vs Grafana + Prometheus
While Grafana/Prometheus are popular, they require lots of setup. Dash0 gives you dashboards, traces, and logs in one platform.
Use Cases for Dash0
Startups
Keep costs predictable while scaling observability.
SaaS Companies
Gain end-to-end visibility into user-facing applications.
Kubernetes Teams
Monitor namespaces, pods, and workloads directly in dash0.
Incident Response
Reduce outage time by quickly correlating metrics, logs, and traces.
Dash0 Pricing: Simple and Predictable
Unlike tools with surprise bills, dash0 charges by telemetry volume (per million spans, logs, or metrics). Dashboards even break down cost by service, namespace, or endpoint so you can optimize spend.
Best Practices for Using Dash0
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Use trace sampling to manage data volume.
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Keep service and namespace names consistent.
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Review cost dashboards regularly.
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Store only meaningful logs.
How to Get Started with Dash0
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Sign up for the free trial.
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Send telemetry using OpenTelemetry SDKs or collectors.
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Explore default dashboards.
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Create your first alert rules.
Dash0 in Action: A Real Example
Imagine your API latency spikes. In dash0, you check metrics → pivot to traces → see a slow database call → open logs from that trace. Problem solved in minutes, not hours.
The Future of Observability with Dash0
As more organizations adopt OpenTelemetry, dash0 is positioned to be the go-to platform that keeps observability open, transparent, and cost-effective.
Conclusion
Observability is no longer optional. With dash0, teams get the power of metrics, logs, and traces in one place — all without the lock-in, complexity, or surprise costs of traditional vendors. Whether you’re a developer, an SRE, or part of a platform team, dash0 makes observability a strength instead of a burden.
FAQs
Q1: What is dash0 used for?
Dash0 is an observability platform for monitoring metrics, logs, and traces using OpenTelemetry standards.
Q2: How is dash0 priced?
It uses a transparent per-telemetry-unit pricing model instead of confusing host-based billing.
Q3: Does dash0 work with Kubernetes?
Yes, dash0 natively supports Kubernetes monitoring with clear insights into pods, namespaces, and workloads.
Q4: What makes dash0 different from Datadog?
Dash0 is OpenTelemetry-native, vendor-neutral, and offers predictable pricing, unlike Datadog’s proprietary ecosystem.
Q5: Can I manage dash0 as code?
Yes. Dashboards, alerts, and resources can be managed through configuration as code.
