Glances vs MySQL Server Exporter

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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FeatureGlancesMySQL Server Exporter
CategoryMonitoring & StatusMonitoring & Status
LicenseLGPL-3.0Apache-2.0
LanguagePythonGo
Setup difficultyEasyEasy
Min. RAM128 MB64 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metal, binarydocker, binary, kubernetes
GitHub stars★ 33,269★ 2,460
First released20122015
ReplacesDatadogDatadog MySQL, VividCortex

Why pick each one

Choose Glances if…

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

Choose MySQL Server Exporter if…

  • Reliable and well-tested
  • Granular collector toggles
MySQL Server Exporter details

Frequently asked questions

Is Glances or MySQL Server Exporter better?

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

Are Glances and MySQL Server Exporter free and open-source?

Yes. Glances is licensed under LGPL-3.0 and MySQL Server Exporter under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Glances and MySQL Server Exporter with Docker?

Glances: yes. MySQL Server Exporter: yes.

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