Comparison
Factry Historian vs Canary Historian
Factry Historian (Factry) is listed as Historian; Canary Historian (Canary Labs) as Historian. No direct integration between them is listed. Last reviewed October 19, 2026.
Head-to-head
Factry Historian vs Canary Historian: key differences
Every row cites the vendor's own pages
Both are vendor-neutral process historians with store-and-forward collectors and an Ignition story, but they price and store data very differently. Factry charges one flat fee per production site with unlimited tags and users, keeps prices private, and stores time series in InfluxDB with PostgreSQL for metadata on Linux. Canary licenses by tag count, publishes its prices (perpetual or subscription), and stores data in its own daily HDB files with lossless compression.
| Topic | Factry Historian | Canary Historian |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model[2, 8] | One flat fee per production site; unlimited users, tags, collectors and integrations. Standard, Advanced and Enterprise tiers. | Priced by tag count, perpetual or annual subscription; Enterprise licensing for unlimited tags. |
| Public pricing[2, 8] | Historian prices not published; guided proof of concept offered. | Yes, a public calculator. Example at 3,500 tags: US$7,400 perpetual license plus US$1,330 CustomerCare, or US$3,000/year subscription (Oct 2026). |
| Clients / users[2, 8] | Unlimited users included in the site fee. | Unlimited Axiom (trending) and Excel clients in both plans. |
| Data collection[5, 9, 12] | Collectors for OPC UA, OPC DA, MQTT (JSON and Sparkplug B), Modbus TCP, Siemens S7, SQL and REST. | Collectors for OPC UA, OPC DA, MQTT Sparkplug B 2.2/3.0 (or JSON), SQL and CSV; gRPC and Web API for custom collectors. Collectors are not separately licensed. |
| Outage buffering[5, 10, 12] | Collectors store and forward, buffering on disk during network outages. | Store & Forward service buffers to local disk and backfills automatically on reconnect; can push to multiple historians. |
| Storage engine[3, 4, 11, 12] | InfluxDB (v1.x and v2.x) for time series; PostgreSQL for configuration, metadata and events. | Own daily HDB files grouped in DataSets, losslessly compressed; never down-samples or interpolates values. |
| Deployment[1, 2, 11, 8] | On-premises, corporate data center (hub-and-spoke) or cloud; runs on practically any Linux OS. | Self-hosted historian server (collectors installed close to the source), or Canary Private Cloud on US Azure from US$12,320/year. |
| Ignition & dashboards[7, 6, 8] | Native Ignition module with store-and-forward; official open-source Grafana datasource. | Axiom trending client included; ODBC connector available as an upgrade for BI tools. |
Consider Factry Historian when…
- You run many tags per site and want a predictable flat fee with no tag counting.
- Your team already runs InfluxDB, PostgreSQL, Linux and Grafana, and wants the historian to fit that stack.
Consider Canary Historian when…
- You want to price the historian yourself from a public calculator before talking to sales.
- You want a self-managed historian with its own lossless storage and unlicensed collectors, with no separate database to administer.
“Consider when” points are PlantWired's editorial reading of the sourced facts above, not vendor claims or a recommendation.
Directory listing side by side
| Attribute | Factry Historian | Canary Historian |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | Factry | Canary Labs |
| Categories | Historian | Historian |
| Ecosystems | Vendor-neutral, Ignition | Ignition, Vendor-neutral |
| Pricing model | Flat fee per production site (unlimited users and tags); price on request | Tag-based license |
| Listed integrations | 5 | 4 |
| Website | https://www.factry.io/historian | https://www.canarylabs.com |
| Direct link | No direct integration listed | |
Shared integrations
Sources
- [1]Factry: Factry Historian product page: https://www.factry.io/historian
- [2]Factry: pricing and FAQ: https://www.factry.io/pricing
- [3]Factry Historian docs: System Architecture: https://docs.factry.io/concepts/system-architecture
- [4]Factry Historian docs: Time-series databases: https://docs.factry.io/concepts/time-series-databases
- [5]Factry Historian docs: Collectors: https://docs.factry.io/concepts/collectors
- [6]Factry: Grafana integration: https://www.factry.io/platform/integrations/grafana
- [7]Factry: Ignition by Inductive Automation integration: https://www.factry.io/platform/integrations/ignition-by-inductive-automation
- [8]Canary Labs: data historian pricing: https://www.canarylabs.com/pricing
- [9]Canary help center: Data Collector Overview (version 26): https://helpcenter.canarylabs.com/t/q6ypl9f/data-collector-overview-and-methodology-version-26
- [10]Canary help center: Store & Forward Buffer (version 26): https://helpcenter.canarylabs.com/t/g9ygfcr/store-forward-buffer-version-26
- [11]Canary help center: Quick Start Guide (version 26): https://helpcenter.canarylabs.com/t/m1ypl9m/quick-start-guide-version-26
- [12]Canary System Whitepaper (2025, PDF): https://blog.canarylabs.com/hubfs/Canary%20System%20Whitepaper%202025.pdf
- Checked October 19, 2026. Prices are vendor list prices as shown on that date and may change.
- Factry Historian: official site https://www.factry.io/historian
- Canary Historian: official site https://www.canarylabs.com
- Integration links: PlantWired editorial directory (methodology)
See everything that works with Factry Historian or Canary Historian.
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Editorial comparison based on public information. Not a recommendation; verify specifics with each vendor.