Deceptive licensing, buggy software, and terrible support
I tried setting up OpenObserve as a self-hosted solution for my server logs. They heavily advertise a "free forever 200GB" Enterprise license to get you onboarded. However, when you actually request it, they only issue the key for 1 year. This is a classic bait-and-switch tactic to lock your data in and eventually force you into a paid subscription once you rely on their ecosystem.
When I contacted support to clarify if this was a mistake and asked about their licensing transparency, they simply revoked my access and refused to communicate further. Well, I promised them I would share my experience online, so here I am doing exactly that.
Beyond the deceptive business model, the software itself is a bloated mess. It consumes a massive amount of server RAM compared to actual lightweight alternatives. The admin UI is extremely clunky and full of basic bugs — for example, you literally cannot even save Headers in Alert Destinations without the system throwing errors. It is absolutely not production-ready.
Save your time and server resources. If you need genuine open-source logging, look into Grafana+Loki or VictoriaLogs instead.