Sazabi vs Amazon CloudWatch: How They Compare for AWS Log Teams
Prices and facts checked on vendor pages on Nov 8, 2026.
Amazon CloudWatch is the monitoring service built into AWS. It fits teams whose workloads and logs already live there. Sazabi is AI-native observability and security for teams that want production problems found and explained from their logs. Sazabi wrote this page, so weigh it accordingly and check each fact against the linked sources.
At a Glance
How CloudWatch Works and Charges
CloudWatch collects metrics, logs, and traces across your AWS environment. Its product page lists anomaly detection, composite alarms, and cross-account observability, and describes CloudWatch Omni as an AI-powered experience built on OpenTelemetry. You query logs with Logs Insights, which has its own query language, or watch them arrive with Live Tail.
The pricing page was checked on November 7, 2026. Rates below are for US East (N. Virginia) and vary by Region.
Logs that AWS services publish on your behalf (vended logs) use tiered rates that start at $0.50 per GB for the first 10 TB. Metrics, alarms, dashboards, and application monitoring are separate meters. This page covers logs only.
How Sazabi Works and Charges
Sazabi reads your logs and opens an issue when it finds a problem worth your attention, with the evidence and root cause attached. There is no monitor to write first. You can also ask questions in plain language, search logs, and build dashboards. When code needs to change, Sazabi hands the investigation to your coding agent (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, and others) through MCP, the CLI, or the API. It does not write the code or open pull requests itself.
Pricing is per 30-day cycle. Hobby is $50, Startup is $200, and Growth is $1,000. Each includes 200 GB of logs ingested, 50 GB of logs scanned, 20 issues, and 500 AI credits. After that, logs ingested and logs scanned cost $0.10 per GB, issues cost $4 each, and AI credits cost $0.01 each. Retention is 7, 30, and 90 days. Enterprise is custom, and there is no yearly billing. See Sazabi pricing for the live numbers.
Worked Example: Ingest and Query Only
Assumptions: 1,000 GB ingested per month, 500 GB scanned by queries, the Standard class in US East, and list prices only. The example ignores the CloudWatch free tier and archive storage, and assumes no extra issues or AI credits on Sazabi.
The gap depends on your mix. CloudWatch scan charges are small, so ingestion dominates its logs bill. Sazabi charges for scans, so query-heavy teams should model both meters. Sazabi also counts issues and AI credits, which this example holds flat.
Key Differences for a Log-Centered Team
Storage and detection are different jobs. CloudWatch stores logs, lets you query them, and fires alarms on the metrics or filters you define. Sazabi starts from the logs and asks what looks wrong. If your incidents begin with someone writing Logs Insights queries by hand, that first step is what Sazabi is built to replace.
Sazabi sits downstream of CloudWatch. When you connect an AWS account, Sazabi assumes a cross-account IAM role you create and installs a subscription filter on each log group you pick. Those logs still land in CloudWatch first, so CloudWatch ingestion is billed as before. Sending OpenTelemetry directly to Sazabi skips that charge for the logs you route that way.
Scope is narrower on the Sazabi side. CloudWatch covers metrics, alarms, application monitoring, and AWS service integrations. Sazabi is centered on logs, and its dashboards chart what you already log.
Security scanning. Sazabi also scans connected repositories for vulnerabilities and files confirmed findings as issues. That is separate from anything CloudWatch lists on its product pages.
Compliance. Sazabi holds SOC 2 Type II, SOC 1, ISO 27001 and ISO 27017 certifications. Anyone who signs an NDA, customer or not, can request the SOC 2 Type II report and ISO 27001 audit reports from the Sazabi Trust Center. HIPAA safeguards are available on select plans. See the compliance page for details.
When to Pick CloudWatch
- Your workloads run almost entirely on AWS and you want metrics, alarms, and logs in one console.
- You rely on AWS-native features such as automatic service metrics, composite alarms, or cross-account observability.
- Your log volume is low enough to stay near the free tier.
- You want charges to stay inside your existing AWS agreement.
- You need tracing and application monitoring from the same vendor as your cloud. The CloudWatch pricing guide shows how those meters add up.
When to Pick Sazabi
- Your incidents start with someone searching logs, and you want issues delivered with the root cause already investigated.
- You want coding agents to read production context through MCP or the CLI.
- You run on more than AWS and want logs from several clouds and SaaS tools in one place. Browse the integration catalog.
- You want retention bundled into a flat plan rather than a separate storage meter.
- You need BYOC on AWS and can pursue an enterprise agreement. The BYOC docs list what runs in your account.
Trying Sazabi Alongside CloudWatch
You do not have to leave CloudWatch to test Sazabi. Connect the AWS integration, choose one noisy log group, and let Sazabi run for a week next to your existing alarms. If you prefer not to use subscription filters, run an OpenTelemetry Collector with the awscloudwatch receiver and forward to Sazabi over OTLP. To send SDK data without going through CloudWatch at all, see OpenTelemetry.
Sazabi also has an MCP connector for AWS, so its agent can search AWS documentation and call AWS APIs with your own IAM credentials during an investigation. If you are weighing more options than these two, read the CloudWatch alternatives roundup.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Sazabi replace CloudWatch?
Not for AWS-native metrics, alarms and service dashboards. Sazabi reads logs from CloudWatch log groups and adds issue detection and investigation on top, so most teams keep CloudWatch for metrics and alarms.
Will I still pay CloudWatch for logs I send to Sazabi?
Yes, if the logs are written to CloudWatch first. Sazabi connects to existing log groups with subscription filters, so ingestion into CloudWatch is billed as usual. Sending logs to Sazabi directly over OpenTelemetry skips that step.
What does CloudWatch charge per GB of logs?
The CloudWatch pricing page lists $0.50 per GB ingested in the Standard log class for US East (N. Virginia), checked in November 2026. Prices vary by Region and log class.
Can Sazabi alert me from CloudWatch logs without writing alarms?
Sazabi detects issues from the logs it receives without hand-built monitors. You can still write an explicit rule as an automation when you want one specific condition watched.
Sources
- Free tier, Live Tail, Essentials log class, archive and data protection rates, and the US East (N. Virginia) log ingestion and Logs Insights query rates (accessed Nov 7, 2026)
- CloudWatch product scope, anomaly detection, cross-account observability, OpenTelemetry support and the CloudWatch Omni description (accessed Nov 7, 2026)
- Standard and Essentials log classes, log groups and shared retention settings (accessed Nov 8, 2026)
- Logs Insights query language, field indexes and Live Tail (accessed Nov 8, 2026)
- Sazabi plan prices, included usage, overage rates and retention (accessed Nov 7, 2026)
- Sazabi product description and capabilities (accessed Nov 7, 2026)
- How Sazabi connects to CloudWatch log groups with subscription filters and a cross-account role (accessed Nov 8, 2026)
- BYOC runs the log pipeline in your own AWS account under an enterprise agreement (accessed Nov 8, 2026)
- Sazabi compliance wording (accessed Nov 8, 2026)