GrafanaFull-stack observability for the agentic era
vs
HexThe Analytics platform for humans and agents
Comparison · Business Intelligence · weekly run Nov 2
Grafana vs Hex
Which one do AI engines recommend, and how do they differ on price, fit and features?
The short answer
Hex is the stronger AI pick in Business Intelligence: it has a visibility score of 1.9 versus 0 for Grafana.
Choose Grafana if…
- You want a lower entry price ($19 vs $36)
- You need FedRAMP or NATSEC100 or PCI DSS or ISO 27001 or CSA STAR coverage
- You prefer a larger, established vendor (1,001–5,000 employees)
- Usage-based pricing suits your budget better than per seat
Choose Hex if…
- You want the brand AI engines rank higher (1.9 vs 0)
- AI answers describe it more positively (67% vs 46% positive)
- You need HIPAA or SOC 1 Type II coverage
- Per seat pricing suits your budget better than usage-based
AI visibility side by side
Latest weekly run · Nov 2
| Metric | Grafana | Hex |
|---|---|---|
| Visibility score | 0% | 1.9% |
| Change vs last week | New | New |
| Rank in Business Intelligence | #44 | #25 |
| Share of voice | 0% | 0.6% |
| Mentions this run | 0 | 3 |
| Positive in AI answers | 46% | 67% |
The stronger value in each row is marked with a ✓.
Visibility score trend
Weekly runs over the last 60 days
Grafana 0pp · Hex 0pp over 0 weekly runs.
Engine by engine
Hex leads on 3 of 3 engines
ChatGPT
AI Mode
Perplexity
GrafanaHex
Head to head in AI answers
0 engine answers name both brands
0Grafana ranked higher
0Hex ranked higher
Features, pricing & fit
| Dimension | Grafana | Hex |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Usage-based | Per seat |
| Entry price | Free; paid from $19 / mo | Free; paid from $36 per seat / mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Deployment | Fully managed Grafana Cloud on Public Cloud, Federal Cloud or Bring Your Own Cloud, plus self-managed Grafana Enterprise | Multi-tenant cloud on AWS, with EU multi-tenant and single-tenant options |
| Integrations | — | 30+ |
| Compliance | FedRAMP, NATSEC100, PCI DSS, SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, ISO 27001, CSA STAR | SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA, GDPR, SOC 1 Type II |
| Support | Community support (Free plan), 8x5 email support (Pro plan), Premium support (Enterprise plan) | Email, In-product messenger, Technical documentation, Slack and Microsoft Teams with Enterprise SLA |
| Founded | 2014 | 2019 |
| Headquarters | New York, NY | San Francisco, CA, United States |
| Employees | 1,001–5,000 | 51–200 |
| Funding | Series E · $1100M raised | Series D |
| Best for | Teams that want open-standard observability without lock-in, from startups to Fortune 500 enterprises | Data teams and business users who need self-serve analytics with trusted, governed answers |
Plans side by side
Hex
Community$0free
Professional$36per Editor / month
Team$75per Editor / month
EnterpriseCustomcustom
Pros and cons
Themes from the AI answers that mention each brand
Grafana
- Permanent free tier
- Open, composable, flexible platform
- Strong open-source, Prometheus and OpenTelemetry support
- Cost-effective, good value
- Managed hosting
- Complex multi-dimensional usage-based billing
- Self-hosting demands significant engineering maintenance
- Capped free-tier limits
Hex
- Suited to technical, data-heavy founders
- Team plans can be costly, rising to $500+ per month with more seats
Data collected ·ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Mode·coverage 100%·next run
Cite as: SlateIndex, “Grafana vs Hex”, https://slateindex.ai/compare/grafana-vs-hex, data of Nov 2, 2026. Licence: CC BY 4.0.