cAdvisor vs OpenObserve
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted apps from related categories — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
cAdvisor
Container resource usage and performance analysis
VS
OpenObserve
Open-source observability platform for logs, metrics and traces
| Feature | cAdvisor | OpenObserve |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Monitoring & Status | Developer Tools & Git |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | Go | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, binary | docker, kubernetes, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 19,342 | ★ 20,592 |
| First released | 2014 | 2023 |
| Replaces | Datadog | Datadog, Elasticsearch |
Why pick each one
Choose OpenObserve if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Kubernetes-ready with Helm charts available
- Mature project with 20.6k GitHub stars
Frequently asked questions
Is cAdvisor or OpenObserve better?
Neither is universally better. OpenObserve has the larger community, while cAdvisor is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are cAdvisor and OpenObserve free and open-source?
Yes. cAdvisor is licensed under Apache-2.0 and OpenObserve under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run cAdvisor and OpenObserve with Docker?
cAdvisor: yes. OpenObserve: yes.