# Application Monitoring: Native OTLP, No Agent > Application monitoring built on native OTLP. Send traces, logs, and metrics from any OpenTelemetry SDK or Collector - no proprietary agent. Start free. Source: https://openobserve.ai/application-monitoring/ --- Point any OpenTelemetry exporter at OpenObserve, over HTTP or gRPC. Your instrumentation stays vendor-neutral. - [Start Free Cloud Trial](https://cloud.openobserve.ai/web/login/) - [Talk to a Human](/demo/) ## Drop-in OTLP endpoint Your endpoint and token come pre-filled. Existing collector configs work unchanged, no migration required. ### Zero Proprietary Agent Send traces through any OTel SDK or Collector you already run, no vendor agent to install. ### Pre-Filled Endpoint and Token Skip manual configuration. Your ingestion endpoint and auth token are ready the moment you sign up. ### One Resource Model for Every Signal Logs, metrics, and traces share the same resource model, so correlation works without custom mapping. ## Why Use OpenObserve for Application Monitoring? ### Vendor-Neutral Instrumentation - **Any OTel Exporter, No Rewrite** - Use OTLP over HTTP or gRPC from any SDK or collector you already run. Existing configs keep working. - **Drop-In Endpoint Configuration** - Your endpoint and token are pre-filled for your organization, no manual setup before your first trace arrives. ### Unified Correlation - **One Resource Model** - Logs, metrics, and traces share a single resource model, so correlation works out of the box instead of after custom mapping. - **Cross-Signal Root Cause** - Jump from a slow trace to the logs and metrics from the same request without switching tools. ### Open Standards - **Nothing Proprietary in the Pipeline** - Every hop from SDK to storage uses open OpenTelemetry standards, nothing to rip out if you change vendors later. - **Standard Semantic Conventions** - Rely on OTel’s semantic conventions instead of a vendor-specific schema for spans and attributes. ### Low Switching Cost - **Instrumentation Stays Yours** - Because nothing is proprietary, moving to or from OpenObserve does not mean re-instrumenting your services. - **Existing Collector Configs Work Unchanged** - Point your current OpenTelemetry Collector config at a new endpoint, nothing else to rebuild. ## Measured against industry leaders Same telemetry, same workloads, one platform. Every number is OpenObserve against a named vendor - not an industry average. 8x cost reduction means you can unify your observability into a single platform. 140x storage means longer retention doesn't necessarily mean expensive bills. 5x to 15x faster queries mean dashboards load in milliseconds, not minutes. See how much you'd save switching today. - [Calculate Your Savings](/datadog_pricing_comparison/) ## Teams trust OpenObserve with their application telemetry ## Start in just a few steps From zero to application traces in minutes - no agents to babysit, no pipelines to wire by hand. ### Sign up Spin up a free OpenObserve Cloud account in the region closest to you. ### Point your exporter Send OTLP over HTTP or gRPC from your SDK or Collector - the endpoint and token are pre-filled for your organization. ### Visualize Watch logs, metrics, and traces stream in - correlated and query-ready from the first event. - [See the guide](https://openobserve.ai/docs/ingestion/logs/otlp/) ## Explore guides, videos, and articles to help you get the most out of application monitoring. ### OpenTelemetry Application Monitoring [Learn more](https://openobserve.ai/docs/ingestion/traces/opentelemetry/) ### Auto-Instrumenting Applications with OpenTelemetry [Learn more](/webinars-videos/distributed-tracing-simplified/) ### Correlating Telemetry Data with OpenObserve [Learn more](https://youtu.be/kft86_LA-Pg) - [Explore All Blogs](/blog/) ## Application Monitoring FAQs ### Do I need to install a proprietary agent? No. OpenObserve ingests OTLP natively over HTTP and gRPC, so any OpenTelemetry SDK or Collector you already run can export to it directly. There is no vendor agent to install, patch, or roll out. ### Will my existing OpenTelemetry Collector config work? Yes. Point your current pipeline at the OpenObserve OTLP endpoint and the rest of the config stays as it is - processors, samplers, and receivers included. Your endpoint and auth token are pre-filled for your organization when you sign up. ### Which signals can I send? Traces, metrics, and logs all arrive over the same OTLP pipeline, and share a single resource model - so a span, the logs from that request, and the metrics for that service correlate without custom mapping. ### How does auto-instrumentation work? OpenTelemetry auto-instrumentation provides: - Automatic code instrumentation for supported frameworks in Python, NodeJS, Java, .Net and Go (using eBPF) - Built-in instrumentation for common libraries - Trace context propagation across services - Performance metric collection - Minimal configuration requirements ### What happens to my instrumentation if I switch tools later? It stays as it is. Every hop from SDK to storage uses open OpenTelemetry standards and standard semantic conventions, so moving to or from OpenObserve means changing an endpoint - not re-instrumenting your services. ### How do I query application telemetry? OpenObserve offers: - SQL-based query language for all telemetry data - Trace visualization and service-level analysis - Time-series analysis with custom windows - Metric aggregation and statistical functions - Prebuilt and custom dashboards and visualizations - Simple or sophisticated alerts based on your needs ## Ready to get started with application monitoring? Send OTLP from the instrumentation you already run, and correlate traces, logs, and metrics in one place. Pick the plan that fits your team. ### Cloud Free trial Fully managed OpenObserve in the cloud. Start with a free trial - no infrastructure to run. [Sign up free](https://cloud.openobserve.ai/web/login/) ### Enterprise Professional Self-hosted Enterprise, free up to 50GB. Advanced features for growing teams. [Download for free](/downloads/) ### Enterprise Premium Enterprise-grade support, SSO, and SLAs for large-scale, multi-region deployments. [Contact sales](/contact-sales/) - [See Pricing Details](/pricing/)