cAdvisor vs Telegraf
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?
cAdvisor
Container resource usage and performance analysis
VS
Telegraf
Plugin-driven server agent for collecting metrics
| Feature | cAdvisor | Telegraf |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Monitoring & Status | Monitoring & Status |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Language | Go | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, binary | docker, kubernetes, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 19,342 | ★ 17,736 |
| First released | 2014 | 2015 |
| Replaces | Datadog | Datadog Agent |
Why pick each one
Frequently asked questions
Is cAdvisor or Telegraf better?
Neither is universally better. cAdvisor has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are cAdvisor and Telegraf free and open-source?
Yes. cAdvisor is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Telegraf under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run cAdvisor and Telegraf with Docker?
cAdvisor: yes. Telegraf: yes.