SHSelfHostIndex

Pinpoint APM vs cAdvisor

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted monitoring & status options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
PI Pinpoint APM Application performance management for large-scale systems VS CA cAdvisor Container resource usage and performance analysis
FeaturePinpoint APMcAdvisor
CategoryMonitoring & StatusMonitoring & Status
LicenseApache-2.0Apache-2.0
LanguageJavaGo
Setup difficultyHardEasy
Min. RAM2,048 MB64 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metaldocker, kubernetes, binary
GitHub stars★ 13,855★ 19,342
First released20152014
ReplacesNew Relic, DynatraceDatadog

Why pick each one

Choose Pinpoint APM if…

  • Detailed call-stack tracing
  • Good for large JVM systems
Pinpoint APM details

Choose cAdvisor if…

  • Zero configuration
  • Lightweight
cAdvisor details

Frequently asked questions

Is Pinpoint APM or cAdvisor better?

cAdvisor is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider Pinpoint APM if its specific feature set fits your needs better.

Are Pinpoint APM and cAdvisor free and open-source?

Yes. Pinpoint APM is licensed under Apache-2.0 and cAdvisor under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Pinpoint APM and cAdvisor with Docker?

Pinpoint APM: yes. cAdvisor: yes.

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