---
title: "How the options differ | Grafana Labs"
description: "The core question that separates the Grafana options, and the options you'll compare"
---

> For a curated documentation index, see [llms.txt](/llms.txt). For the complete documentation index, see [llms-full.txt](/llms-full.txt).

## How the options differ

Grafana comes in several forms that differ on one core question: how much do you run yourself, and how much does someone else run for you?

This section walks through your options along that spectrum:

- **Grafana OSS** and **Grafana Enterprise**: you self-host and operate everything
- **Amazon Managed Grafana** and **Azure Managed Grafana**: AWS or Microsoft runs Grafana for you, focused on dashboards
- **Grafana Cloud**: Grafana Labs runs a full managed observability platform for you

It also clears up a common mix-up: buying Grafana Cloud through a cloud marketplace is a billing choice, not a different product.

Then you’ll compare the options across features, pricing, team requirements, and data residency, work through a decision framework, and leave with a clear next step.

## Estimated time

12-15 minutes