Cortex vs Pulse Monitor
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
Pulse Monitor
Self-hosted monitoring of Proxmox and infrastructure
| Feature | Cortex | Pulse Monitor |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Monitoring & Status | Monitoring & Status |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Language | Go | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 1,024 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, helm | docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 5,844 | ★ 6,509 |
| First released | 2016 | 2024 |
| Replaces | Datadog, Grafana Cloud | Datadog |
Why pick each one
Choose Pulse Monitor if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 6.5k GitHub stars
Frequently asked questions
Is Cortex or Pulse Monitor better?
Pulse Monitor is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider Cortex if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Cortex and Pulse Monitor free and open-source?
Yes. Cortex is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Pulse Monitor under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Cortex and Pulse Monitor with Docker?
Cortex: yes. Pulse Monitor: yes.