CloudWatch
AWS CloudWatch provides monitoring, logging, and observability for AWS resources and applications. · AWS · Observability
Overview
CloudWatch is AWS's native observability platform, offering integrated monitoring, logging, and alerting for AWS resources and applications with a generous free tier.
Good fit
Use CloudWatch to monitor AWS infrastructure, set up automated alarms, and collect logs for troubleshooting within AWS environments.
- AWS users
- DevOps teams
- SREs
- cloud-native apps
Not a fit
Avoid if you need to monitor non-AWS infrastructure or require advanced analytics not supported by CloudWatch.
- multi-cloud monitoring
- on-premises only
- advanced log analytics
Quickstart · 5 steps
- Sign in to the AWS Management Console.
- Navigate to CloudWatch from the AWS services menu.
- Create a dashboard to visualize metrics.
- Set up alarms for key metrics (e.g., CPU utilization).
- Enable log collection for your AWS resources.
Other free observability options
Free tierWhat you get freeRiskCard
Datadog · Observability
Up to 5 hosts (Free plan) · 1-day metric retention (Free plan) · 14-day free trial of Pro/Enterprise features
Billing risk: None
No card
New Relic · Observability
100 GB/month data ingest · Unlimited basic users, 1 full platform user · 500 synthetic checks/month
Billing risk: None
No card
Sentry · Observability
5,000 errors/month · 5 GB logs and metrics/month · 5M spans/month
Billing risk: None
No card
UptimeRobot · Observability
50 monitors · 5-minute check interval
Billing risk: None
No card