Glances vs Parca

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?
FeatureGlancesParca
CategoryMonitoring & StatusMonitoring & Status
LicenseLGPL-3.0Apache-2.0
LanguagePythonTypeScript
Setup difficultyEasyMedium
Min. RAM128 MB256 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metal, binarydocker, kubernetes, binary
GitHub stars★ 33,269★ 4,935
First released20122021
ReplacesDatadogDatadog Profiler

Why pick each one

Choose Glances if…

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

Choose Parca if…

  • No code changes needed
  • Low overhead
Parca details

Frequently asked questions

Is Glances or Parca better?

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

Are Glances and Parca free and open-source?

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

Can I run Glances and Parca with Docker?

Glances: yes. Parca: yes.

Related comparisons