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Section 2 · Understand your options

The core question that separates the Grafana options, and the options you'll compare

Estimated time: 1 min

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