Glances vs Pushgateway
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
Pushgateway
Push acceptor for ephemeral and batch job metrics
| Feature | Glances | Pushgateway |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 98 · Excellent | 87 · Excellent |
| Category | Monitoring & Status | Monitoring & Status |
| License | LGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Python | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 32 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal, binary | docker, kubernetes, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 33,666 | ★ 3,369 |
| First released | 2012 | 2015 |
| Replaces | Datadog | Datadog |
What are Glances and Pushgateway?
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
Pushgateway
The Prometheus Pushgateway allows ephemeral and batch jobs to expose their metrics to Prometheus. Jobs push metrics to the gateway, which Prometheus then scrapes on its regular schedule.
- Accepts pushed metrics
- Bridges batch jobs to Prometheus
- Persists metrics to disk
- Tiny footprint
Glances vs Pushgateway: key differences
Glances is written in Python, while Pushgateway is built with Go. Licensing differs — LGPL-3.0 for Glances versus Apache-2.0 for Pushgateway. Pushgateway is the lighter option, starting around 32 MB of RAM against 128 MB for Glances. Glances is the more established project (first released 2012), while Pushgateway arrived in 2015. Glances has the considerably larger community, at 33,666 GitHub stars versus 3,369.
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 Pushgateway if…
- Solves batch job monitoring
- Simple to run
Watch out for
- Not for high-frequency metrics
- Can become a single point of failure
Frequently asked questions
Is Glances or Pushgateway 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 Pushgateway free and open-source?
Yes. Glances is licensed under LGPL-3.0 and Pushgateway under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Glances and Pushgateway with Docker?
Glances: yes. Pushgateway: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Glances or Pushgateway?
Pushgateway has the smaller minimum footprint at 32 MB of RAM, compared to about 128 MB for Glances. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.