All the openness. None of the assembly.
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Grafana Labs is the #1 Leader in the 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Observability Platforms, with 200K+ GitHub stars and the most respected open-source observability ecosystem in the industry. We respect that. This page is an honest look at where IAPM takes a different approach, where Grafana excels, and how you can evaluate both with the same production data.
Six tools. Six configurations. One observability goal.
Source: the LGTM stack
The Assembly Required Problem
Six tools. Six configurations. One observability goal.
- Loki, Tempo, Mimir, Pyroscope, Alloy, Grafana: each tool is best-in-class, but assembling them into a unified observability platform is your job.
- Assembly tax: configuration, upgrades, scaling, cross-signal correlation, and on-call for the monitoring system itself.
- Platform engineering bandwidth: for teams that need to ship features, not manage observability infrastructure, the assembly tax is real.
All the openness. Zero assembly required.
What If It Came Assembled?
One platform. Fully managed. Still OTel-native.
- Same commitment to open standards: no proprietary agents, no vendor lock-in. Your OTel instrumentation works with any compatible backend.
- Single, managed platform: traces, metrics, logs, AI, and 3D topology in one product, not six tools you wire together.
- Capabilities dashboards cannot deliver: spatial topology and an AI assistant that fixes code.
One platform. Not six tools wired together.
Architecture: How We Differ
Unified platform vs composable stack.
IAPM and Grafana share the same commitment to open standards and OpenTelemetry. The difference is what happens after data ingestion. Grafana gives you the best dashboards in the industry. IAPM gives you a 3D spatial environment where your services, relationships, and telemetry live together, plus an AI assistant that can diagnose issues and fix your code.
Grafana Cloud reduces the operational burden compared to self-hosted, but the architecture is still multiple tools with separate backends. IAPM is a single, unified platform from the start.
| Aspect | IAPM | Grafana |
|---|---|---|
| Platform Model | Unified managed platform | LGTM stack (Loki + Grafana + Tempo + Mimir + Pyroscope + Alloy) |
| Instrumentation | Standard OpenTelemetry SDKs only | OpenTelemetry-native (Alloy + Beyla) |
| Visualization | 3D spatial topology + web dashboards | 2D dashboards (industry-leading flexibility) |
| Vendor Lock-in | None. Change one endpoint URL to leave. | None. Open-source components, standard APIs. |
| Operational Burden | Fully managed SaaS | Self-managed (OSS) or Grafana Cloud (managed) |
| Community | Growing | 200K+ GitHub stars, massive ecosystem |
Tessa fixes code. You review it. You own it.
| Capability | Tessa (IAPM) | Grafana Assistant |
|---|---|---|
| Codebase Access | Full workspace: read, search, rename, modify | No codebase access |
| Production Context | 3D topology + traces + metrics | Dashboard metrics, query generation, incident analysis |
| Code Fixes | Fixes code. You review, you own it. | Query-focused, no code changes |
| Pricing | Included in every paid tier | $20/active user/month add-on (verified as of March 2026, source) |
| Spatial Context | 3D topology-aware diagnosis | Dashboard-only context |
| Accountability | Human on the loop | Query suggestions and incident summaries |
AI: Tessa vs Grafana Assistant
Human on the loop.
Tessa connects your production telemetry to your codebase. Add your repositories as workspaces, and Tessa traces a production issue from your 3D topology straight to the source file, then makes the fix.
Your code stays in your workspace. You review the changes. You commit when ready. Tessa does the work; you own the outcome.
Grafana Assistant helps you write queries, understand anomalies, and investigate incidents within the Grafana dashboard. Valuable for teams who live in Grafana, but it is query-focused with no codebase access. When the investigation is done, you still context-switch to your IDE to make the fix. And it costs $20/active user/month on top of your existing Grafana costs. Tessa is included in every paid tier and goes from diagnosis to code fix in one conversation.
One price. Everything included.
Pricing: The Full Picture
Scenario: 40 nodes, 10 engineers.
Grafana Cloud's pricing appears transparent, but the multi-dimensional billing model (per-signal, per-user, per-feature) adds up. Here is what a production deployment looks like.
- Comparable cost, more capability: At similar price points, IAPM includes 3D spatial topology, AI code fixes, and a unified platform. Grafana Cloud gives you dashboards and separate tools.
- No per-user fees: IAPM does not charge per seat for visualization or AI. Grafana charges $8/user for visualization and $20/user for AI separately.
- Predictable billing: IAPM's per-node pricing means your bill does not fluctuate with data volume. Grafana Cloud bills per GB across logs, traces, and profiles.
- No operational burden: Self-hosted Grafana is free to download, not free to operate. IAPM is fully managed with the same OTel portability.
| Line Item | IAPM | Grafana Cloud Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Platform Fee | Included | $19/month |
| Application Observability (40 hosts) | Included | $18/host/mo x 40 = $720 |
| Logs (500 GB/mo) | Included | $0.55/GB x 450 GB (after free 50 GB) = $248 |
| Traces (200 GB/mo) | Included | $0.55/GB x 150 GB (after free 50 GB) = $83 |
| Visualization (10 users) | No per-user fees | $8/user/mo x 10 = $80 |
| AI Assistant (10 users) | Included (Tessa) | $20/user/mo x 10 = $200 |
| Estimated Monthly Total | $1,575 (Analyze) | $1,350+ (varies with data volume) |
Grafana Cloud pricing based on Pro tier rates from grafana.com/pricing, verified as of March 2026. Actual costs vary by data volume and active users. Self-hosted Grafana is free but excludes operational costs. IAPM pricing from immersivefusion.com/pricing. All prices USD.
You don't have to rip and replace
Run Both. Migrate Gradually.
Same telemetry, two destinations, zero re-instrumentation.
- Dual-destination: Your OTel Collector fans out telemetry to both IAPM and Grafana simultaneously.
- Both platforms are OTel-native: migration is straightforward. Add an exporter, see your data in IAPM's 3D topology, and decide which experience your team prefers.
- Keep your Grafana dashboards: IAPM adds spatial topology and AI on top. You do not have to abandon existing dashboards.
- Exit guarantee: If IAPM is not right for you, change one endpoint URL. Your instrumentation stays exactly the same.
Dual-Destination Collector Config
exporters:
otlp/iapm:
endpoint: "https://otlp.iapm.app"
headers:
API-Key: "YOUR-API-KEY"
otlp/grafana:
endpoint: "otlp-gateway-prod-us-central-0.grafana.net:443"
headers:
Authorization: "Basic ${GRAFANA_CLOUD_TOKEN}"
service:
pipelines:
traces:
exporters: [otlp/iapm, otlp/grafana]
metrics:
exporters: [otlp/iapm, otlp/grafana]Standard OTel Collector config. Same telemetry, two destinations.
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