Overview

How node-based pricing works, how it compares to volume-based pricing, expected savings, and what every tier includes.

How does node-based pricing work

A node = any host running a 10x collector, regardless of instance size:

  • Kubernetes: 1 worker node = 1 billing unit (DaemonSet deployment)
  • VMs / bare metal / ECS on EC2: 1 host running a collector = 1 billing unit
  • Serverless containers (Fargate, Cloud Run, Container Apps): 10 average concurrent tasks = 1 billing unit
  • Lambda and other FaaS: free, not counted

Instance size (vCPU, memory) does not affect count. One question determines your tier: "How many nodes run log collection?"

Everything else is unlimited: log volume, traffic spikes, applications, environments, queries, destinations.

How does this compare to volume-based pricing

Volume-based tools charge per GB. We charge per node.

When your traffic grows, their bill grows proportionally. Yours doesn't.

Splunk charges ~$6/GB ingested. Datadog charges ~$2.50/GB (ingestion + 30-day indexing). Cribl charges per GB processed plus per worker.

All create unpredictable costs that spike during success or incidents. Log10x pricing is based on infrastructure capacity, predictable and doesn't punish growth.

What savings can I expect

Savings depend on which apps you deploy, your daily log volume, per-GB ingestion cost, and how much you divert to S3:

  • Receiver, Compact mode: lossless in-place volume reduction on Splunk, self-hosted Elasticsearch/OpenSearch, and ClickHouse (typically an estimated 50-80%, depending on log structure)
  • Receiver, Filter mode: cost-based sampling of noisy event types
  • Retriever: offload to your own S3 bucket at standard S3 storage rates and fetch the exact events back on demand, with no SIEM re-ingest

Use the ROI Calculator with your actual numbers for a personalized estimate.

Which products are included

All of them. Every tier includes:

  • Reporter (DaemonSet)
  • Receiver, Filter and Compact modes
  • Retriever (indexing + querying)
  • MCP (agent control plane, validation scaffold + agent-facing tools)
  • 10x Console (dashboard, metrics, recommendations)

There are no feature gates or product tiers. You get everything.