Overview

The eBPF sensor collects metrics, logs, and traces without code changes or manual instrumentation, and processes data at the edge. groundcover says it ingests telemetry in real time without sampling. That combination can suit teams seeking visibility across production workloads without adding instrumentation, though the per-host billing model means cost follows monitored Kubernetes nodes or Linux hosts rather than telemetry volume.

Deployment options range from Bring Your Own Cloud (BYOC), where the backend runs in the customer’s cloud under groundcover’s management and the UI is hosted by groundcover, to Fully On-Prem, which places both backend and UI on customer premises, including cloud or physical servers. The range is useful for teams with different infrastructure requirements, but only the latter keeps the interface on premises.

Key features

Broad telemetry coverage: Metrics, logs, and traces are collected together, with distributed and transaction tracing, dependency mapping, real user monitoring, and log correlation. That breadth makes groundcover relevant beyond teams focused on a single signal type.
Integrations: Listed connections include Kubernetes, OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, AWS CloudWatch, Google Cloud Monitoring, Azure, MongoDB Atlas, Redis Cloud, Datadog, and GitHub. This gives teams several common data sources and tools to connect, including cloud monitoring services and observability platforms.
Agent Mode: The AI agent can investigate telemetry and create dashboards, monitors, gcQL queries, and OTTL pipelines. It runs on Amazon Bedrock, OpenAI ChatGPT, or Anthropic Claude inside the customer’s cloud; groundcover says prompts, logs, and traces do not leave that infrastructure. That positioning may matter to teams with data-boundary concerns.
Security and support: The Trust Center covers CCPA, GDPR, HIPAA, ISO/IEC 27001:2022, SOC 2 Type 2, and PCI DSS topics and provides access to security documents. Standard support is available during business hours, with stated response targets ranging from under 8 hours for critical issues to under 72 hours for low-priority ones.

Pricing

Pricing is based on average monthly monitored Kubernetes nodes or Linux hosts, not ingestion volume. This makes the charging basis clear for teams that budget by host count, but those with changing or high host counts should consider how that meter affects their costs.

Plan	Price	What it includes
Free	Free	Free forever; 12-hour data retention, Slack Community support, no credit card required, and BYOC.
Pro	30.00 USD per month, per host	All available integrations and data sources, SSO support, standard data retention, standard support, and BYOC.
Enterprise	35.00 USD per month, per host	Everything in Pro, plus RBAC support, unlimited data retention, premium support, and BYOC.
On Premise	50.00 USD per month, per host	Everything in Enterprise, plus a self-hosted data plane and UI, isolated authentication, and Full On-Prem deployment.

The Free plan is suited to evaluation or limited needs, but 12-hour retention and community support constrain its use for longer investigations or support-dependent operations. Pro adds integrations, SSO, and standard support, but does not include Enterprise’s unlimited retention, RBAC, or premium support. Enterprise is the step up for those access-control and retention needs. On Premise is for organizations that need both the data plane and UI on their own infrastructure.

Platforms

groundcover supports Linux, self-hosted, and web environments. Its hybrid deployment model accommodates BYOC and Fully On-Prem, with the latter covering customer cloud or physical servers.

Who it's for

groundcover is a strong fit for production teams operating Kubernetes or Linux hosts that want metrics, logs, traces, and related monitoring capabilities without manual instrumentation. BYOC suits teams that want the backend in their cloud while delegating its management; Fully On-Prem suits those that require both backend and UI on customer premises. It is less suited to buyers who need long retention at no cost or whose costs are better aligned to telemetry volume than host count.

Pros and cons

Pro: eBPF collection avoids code changes and manual instrumentation, reducing the need to modify applications to gather telemetry.
Pro: BYOC and Full On-Prem offer meaningful control over backend and UI placement for different infrastructure requirements.
Pro: Agent Mode can produce operational artifacts such as monitors and queries while running inside the customer’s cloud.
Con: The free plan retains data for only 12 hours, limiting its usefulness for investigations that need a longer history.
Con: Host-based billing can be a mismatch for teams whose telemetry volumes, rather than monitored hosts, drive their costs.
Con: Standard support is business-hours only, so teams needing premium support must move beyond Pro.

Alternatives

For an open-source alternative, DeepFlow has a free Community Edition supporting Linux servers and selected Kubernetes, cloud, and container environments. Coroot offers a free, self-hosted Apache 2.0 Community Edition, making it an option for teams prioritizing that licensing and deployment combination. Odigos has a free, open-source Apache 2.0 edition centered on core OpenTelemetry tracing and community support, which may fit a tracing-focused requirement.

Metoro Kubernetes Profiling has a free Hobby plan capped at one cluster, one user, and two nodes with 28-day retention; it may suit a small Kubernetes setup that values a longer stated retention window. Kubeshark offers a free Community plan for up to three nodes or 60 pods, with internet connectivity required, unlimited API call capacity, and community support. Elastic Observability is a paid option with a usage-based serverless plan whose logs and traces ingestion starts at $0.09/.

Qpoint has a free Community plan for up to 25 endpoints, with agent discovery and monitoring with attribution, policy plugins, source enforcement, and community support. Caretta is a free open-source Kubernetes tool from groundcover. For broader browsing, see eBPF Observability Tools, Application Performance Monitoring, Observability Platforms, Metrics Monitoring Tools, Kubernetes Monitoring, and Log Management Software.

Verdict

Choose groundcover if you need broad, eBPF-based production telemetry across Kubernetes or Linux and value BYOC or fully on-premises deployment. Its main advantage is collecting several signal types without application instrumentation while offering deployment flexibility. Look elsewhere if 12-hour free retention is too short or host-based billing does not match how you need to budget monitoring.

	groundcover	Observatorium
Free plan	Yes
Free trial	Yes
Paid from	$30/mo
Platforms	Linux, self-hosted, Web	api, self-hosted
Free plan	Yes
Paid from	30 /mo
Distributed tracing	Yes	No
Transaction tracing	Yes
Dependency mapping	Yes
Real user monitoring	Yes
Log correlation	Yes
Deployment model	hybrid
Kubernetes logs		Yes
Managed Kubernetes support		Yes

groundcover vs Observatorium

groundcover

Observatorium