Beszel vs Prometheus

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?
FeatureBeszelPrometheus
CategoryMonitoring & StatusMonitoring & Status
LicenseMITApache-2.0
LanguageGoGo
Setup difficultyEasyMedium
Min. RAM128 MB512 MB
Deploymentdocker, binarydocker, binary, helm
GitHub stars★ 24,108★ 65,616
First released20242015
ReplacesUptimeRobotDatadog

Why pick each one

Choose Beszel if…

  • Extremely lightweight
  • Simple multi-host view
  • Easy setup
Beszel details

Choose Prometheus if…

  • Powerful query language
  • Reliable and scalable
  • Huge ecosystem
Prometheus details

Frequently asked questions

Is Beszel or Prometheus better?

Neither is universally better. Prometheus has the larger community, while Beszel is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.

Are Beszel and Prometheus free and open-source?

Yes. Beszel is licensed under MIT and Prometheus under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Beszel and Prometheus with Docker?

Beszel: yes. Prometheus: yes.

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