Elastic vs Apollo GraphQL Pricing (2026)
How do these two stack up on price? Here's what each one costs, what you get, and where the value sits.
| Elastic | Apollo GraphQL | |
|---|---|---|
| Starts at | Custom | Custom |
| Number of plans | 3 | 4 |
| Free plan | — | |
| Free trial | ||
| Pricing model | usage-based | usage-based |
Elasticsearch
- Build search and vector database applications.
- Serverless
- Hosted
- Self-managed
Elastic Observability
- Monitor health and resolve issues for apps and infrastructure.
- Serverless
- Hosted
- Self-managed
Elastic Security
- Protect, investigate, and respond to cyber threats.
- Serverless
- Hosted
- Self-managed
Free
- GraphOS - Apollo's complete API management platform
- Supports any GraphQL API
- Self-hosted GraphOS Router (limited to 60 requests per minute)
- Built-in support for GraphQL Federation, Connectors, Response Caching, Federated Subscriptions, and more.
- Up to 3
- 1 day
- Community Support
Developer
- GraphOS - Apollo's complete API management platform
- Supports any GraphQL API
- Self-hosted GraphOS Router
- Built-in support for GraphQL Federation, Connectors, Response Caching, Federated Subscriptions, and more.
- Up to 10
- 7 days
- Developer Support (8×5, no SLA)
Standard
- GraphOS - Apollo's complete API management platform
- Supports any GraphQL API
- Self-hosted GraphOS Router
- Built-in support for GraphQL Federation, Connectors, Response Caching, Federated Subscriptions, and more.
- Schema Proposals - Collaboration and approval workflows
- Single sign-on (SSO)
- Up to 30
- 90 days
- Standard Support (8×5, with SLA)
Enterprise
- GraphOS - Apollo's complete API management platform
- Supports any GraphQL API
- Self-hosted GraphOS Router
- Built-in support for GraphQL Federation, Connectors, Response Caching, Federated Subscriptions, and more.
- Schema Proposals - Collaboration and approval workflows
- Single sign-on (SSO)
- Audit logging
- Custom MSA
- Unlimited
- 18 months
- Business Support (24×7×365, with SLA)
- (Add-on) Premium Support Packages
- (Add-on) Professional Services Packages
Elastic vs Apollo GraphQL FAQ
- Which one is cheaper?
- One or both use custom pricing, so it depends on your specific needs.
- Can I use either one for free?
- Apollo GraphQL has a free plan. Elastic doesn't — though they do offer a free trial.
- How do they charge?
- Both use a usage-based model, so the comparison is straightforward — it comes down to features and limits at each price point.
- Which one is a better deal?
- Depends on what you need. Elastic: Elastic sits in the premium-to-enterprise range of the search and observability space, competing with Datadog, Splunk, and OpenSearch-based alternatives. They're not trying to win on price — they're positioning against Splunk on flexibility and against Datadog on breadth across search, observability, and security in one platform. Apollo GraphQL: Apollo sits in a premium position for GraphQL infrastructure — they're not competing on being cheap, they're betting on being the de facto standard for federated GraphQL at scale. They're targeting mid-market to enterprise engineering teams who've already bought into the GraphQL ecosystem and need a managed, production-grade layer.
Keep tabs on both.
We'll monitor pricing changes for Elastic and Apollo GraphQL and let you know when something moves.