Glances vs Kibana

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?
FeatureGlancesKibana
CategoryMonitoring & StatusMonitoring & Status
LicenseLGPL-3.0AGPL-3.0
LanguagePythonTypeScript
Setup difficultyEasyMedium
Min. RAM128 MB1,024 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metal, binarydocker, kubernetes, binary
GitHub stars★ 33,269★ 21,230
First released20122013
ReplacesDatadogSplunk, Datadog

Why pick each one

Choose Glances if…

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

Choose Kibana if…

  • Rich visualization options
  • Mature ecosystem
Kibana details

Frequently asked questions

Is Glances or Kibana better?

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

Are Glances and Kibana free and open-source?

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

Can I run Glances and Kibana with Docker?

Glances: yes. Kibana: yes.

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