Cortex vs Graphite
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?
Cortex
Horizontally scalable, multi-tenant Prometheus as a service
VS
Graphite
Scalable real-time graphing and time series storage
| Feature | Cortex | Graphite |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Monitoring & Status | Monitoring & Status |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Go | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 1,024 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, helm | docker, bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 5,844 | ★ 6,102 |
| First released | 2016 | 2008 |
| Replaces | Datadog, Grafana Cloud | Datadog |
Why pick each one
Frequently asked questions
Is Cortex or Graphite better?
Graphite is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler medium setup. Consider Cortex if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Cortex and Graphite free and open-source?
Yes. Cortex is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Graphite under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Cortex and Graphite with Docker?
Cortex: yes. Graphite: yes.