What is the main difference between Grafana and Prometheus?

Grafana and Prometheus are both infrastructure monitoring tools but differ in their approach, features, and target audience. Compare their GitHub stats, technology stack, and community adoption to make the best choice.

Which is better: Grafana or Prometheus?

The choice between Grafana and Prometheus depends on your specific needs, technical requirements, and team preferences. Both are quality open source solutions with active communities.

Can I migrate from Grafana to Prometheus?

Migration between Grafana and Prometheus is possible but requires careful planning. Consider data export/import capabilities, feature parity, and potential workflow changes.

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Grafana vs Prometheus

Learn how Grafana and Prometheus differ in their key features, development activity, technology stack and community adoption, so you can decide which of these infrastructure monitoring tools is best for you.

Grafana

Grafana unifies metrics, logs, traces, profiles, and business data into one OpenTelemetry-native platform with AI-assisted root cause analysis and adaptive cost controls.

Visit Grafana Read more

76,841stars+492(+0.6%)

Last 30 days

Last commit
10 hours ago
Repository age
13 years
Version
v13.2.2
License
AGPL-3.0
Self-hosted
Yes
Repository
grafana/grafana

Prometheus

Pull-based monitoring system with a multi-dimensional data model, PromQL query language, built-in alerting, and a time series database built for cloud native environments.

Visit Prometheus Read more

66,157stars+386(+0.6%)

Last 30 days

Last commit
16 hours ago
Repository age
14 years
Version
v3.14.0
License
Apache-2.0
Self-hosted
Yes
Repository
prometheus/prometheus

Detailed Comparison

Both Grafana and Prometheus have their unique strengths and serve similar purposes effectively. Consider your specific needs regarding popularity, growth, activity, technology, maturity, licensing and features when making your decision.

Comparable

Community & Popularity

Both tools have similar popularity levels, with Grafana having 76,841 stars and Prometheus having 66,157 stars on GitHub. In terms of developer contributions, Grafana has 14,766 forks, indicating strong developer engagement.

Comparable

Growth Momentum

Grafana and Prometheus are moving at much the same rate, adding 492 stars and adding 386 stars respectively over the last 30 days (+0.6% vs +0.6%). Neither is pulling away from the other on momentum alone.

Comparable

Development Activity

Both projects show recent activity, with Grafana last updated 10 hours ago and Prometheus 16 hours ago.

Comparable

Technology Stack

Both tools share common technology foundations, being built with JavaScript, CSS, Bash, Typescript, JSX, Golang. However, they differ in their additional technology choices: Grafana uses Python, Ruby while Prometheus leverages SCSS.

Prometheus wins

Project Maturity

Prometheus has been in development longer, starting 14 years ago, compared to Grafana which began 13 years ago. This 1.1-year head start suggests Prometheus may have more mature features and established processes.

Comparable

Licensing

The projects use different licenses: Grafana is licensed under AGPL-3.0 while Prometheus uses Apache-2.0. Consider the licensing requirements when choosing for your project.

Comparable

Use Cases & Features

Both tools serve similar use cases in Infrastructure Monitoring. However, they also have distinct specializations: Grafana also focuses on Performance Monitoring (APM), Data Visualization while Prometheus extends into Time Series Databases.

Comparable