ElastAlert 2 vs Prometheus

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted monitoring & status options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

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FeatureElastAlert 2Prometheus
CategoryMonitoring & StatusMonitoring & Status
LicenseApache-2.0Apache-2.0
LanguagePythonGo
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM256 MB512 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metaldocker, binary, helm
GitHub stars★ 1,128★ 65,616
First released20212015
ReplacesSplunk AlertsDatadog

Why pick each one

Choose ElastAlert 2 if…

  • Flexible rule engine
  • Many integrations
ElastAlert 2 details

Choose Prometheus if…

  • Powerful query language
  • Reliable and scalable
  • Huge ecosystem
Prometheus details

Frequently asked questions

Is ElastAlert 2 or Prometheus better?

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

Are ElastAlert 2 and Prometheus free and open-source?

Yes. ElastAlert 2 is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Prometheus under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run ElastAlert 2 and Prometheus with Docker?

ElastAlert 2: yes. Prometheus: yes.

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