Glances vs Grafana k6

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?
FeatureGlancesGrafana k6
CategoryMonitoring & StatusMonitoring & Status
LicenseLGPL-3.0AGPL-3.0
LanguagePythonGo
Setup difficultyEasyMedium
Min. RAM128 MB256 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metal, binarydocker, binary, bare-metal
GitHub stars★ 33,269★ 31,211
First released20122017
ReplacesDatadogLoadRunner, BlazeMeter

Why pick each one

Choose Glances if…

  • Very easy to run
  • Lightweight
  • Good single-host overview
Glances details

Choose Grafana k6 if…

  • Developer-friendly scripting
  • Great CI integration
Grafana k6 details

Frequently asked questions

Is Glances or Grafana k6 better?

Glances is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider Grafana k6 if its specific feature set fits your needs better.

Are Glances and Grafana k6 free and open-source?

Yes. Glances is licensed under LGPL-3.0 and Grafana k6 under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Glances and Grafana k6 with Docker?

Glances: yes. Grafana k6: yes.

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