Glances vs Grafana
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted monitoring & status options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Glances
Cross-platform system monitoring at a glance
VS
Grafana
Open observability dashboards and visualization
| Feature | Glances | Grafana |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | ≈5-minute setup |
| Health score | 98 · Excellent | 100 · Excellent |
| Category | Monitoring & Status | Monitoring & Status |
| License | LGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | Python | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal, binary | docker, bare-metal, helm |
| GitHub stars | ★ 33,666 | ★ 76,876 |
| First released | 2012 | 2014 |
| Replaces | Datadog | Datadog |
What are Glances and Grafana?
Glances
Glances is a cross-platform system monitoring tool that presents a wide range of host metrics in a terminal or web view. It targets administrators wanting a quick overview of a single machine. It is deployed via Docker, pip, or packages.
- Terminal and web monitoring views
- Wide range of metrics
- REST API and exporters
- Cross-platform support
Grafana
Grafana is an open-source analytics and visualization platform that builds dashboards from many data sources. It targets operators and analysts who need rich observability dashboards. It is deployed via Docker, packages, or Helm.
- Dashboards from many data sources
- Alerting and annotations
- Large plugin ecosystem
- Templating and variables
Glances vs Grafana: key differences
Glances is written in Python, while Grafana is built with TypeScript. Licensing differs — LGPL-3.0 for Glances versus AGPL-3.0 for Grafana. Glances is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 512 MB for Grafana. Glances is the more established project (first released 2012), while Grafana arrived in 2014. Grafana has the considerably larger community, at 76,876 GitHub stars versus 33,666.
Why pick each one
Choose Glances if…
- Very easy to run
- Lightweight
- Good single-host overview
Watch out for
- Best for one host at a time
- Limited history
Choose Grafana if…
- Beautiful flexible dashboards
- Broad data source support
- Strong community
Watch out for
- Not a data store itself
- Alerting can be complex
Frequently asked questions
Is Glances or Grafana better?
Neither is universally better. Grafana has the larger community, while Glances is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Glances and Grafana free and open-source?
Yes. Glances is licensed under LGPL-3.0 and Grafana under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Glances and Grafana with Docker?
Glances: yes. Grafana: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Glances or Grafana?
Glances has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 512 MB for Grafana. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.