cAdvisor vs Glances

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?
FeaturecAdvisorGlances
CategoryMonitoring & StatusMonitoring & Status
LicenseApache-2.0LGPL-3.0
LanguageGoPython
Setup difficultyEasyEasy
Min. RAM64 MB128 MB
Deploymentdocker, kubernetes, binarydocker, bare-metal, binary
GitHub stars★ 19,342★ 33,269
First released20142012
ReplacesDatadogDatadog

Why pick each one

Choose cAdvisor if…

  • Zero configuration
  • Lightweight
cAdvisor details

Choose Glances if…

  • Very easy to run
  • Lightweight
  • Good single-host overview
Glances details

Frequently asked questions

Is cAdvisor or Glances better?

Neither is universally better. Glances has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are cAdvisor and Glances free and open-source?

Yes. cAdvisor is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Glances under LGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run cAdvisor and Glances with Docker?

cAdvisor: yes. Glances: yes.

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