Pricing and billing complexity can be a barrier to observability, with many vendors offering transparent and budget-friendly pricing, but some hiding hidden costs in contract terms. To maximize ROI, watch out for bait-and-switch pricing, unbudgeted monthly overage fees, limited data ingestion limits, unpredictable costs as you scale, and constant re-forecasting and re-contracting for multiple SKUs. Data explosion can double your bill due to log volumes being unpredictable when it comes to forecasting costs. To avoid these traps, look for vendors offering low data cost per GB, usage-based billing models with no penalties for scaling, and tools to manage data ingest and query, track, and alert on billing-related usage. New Relic's all-in-one pricing model offers flexibility to use any of its 30+ capabilities as needs change, without cost penalties or complicated forecasting.