Glances vs SQL Exporter

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?
FeatureGlancesSQL Exporter
CategoryMonitoring & StatusMonitoring & Status
LicenseLGPL-3.0MIT
LanguagePythonGo
Setup difficultyEasyMedium
Min. RAM128 MB64 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metal, binarydocker, binary, kubernetes
GitHub stars★ 33,269★ 575
First released20122020
ReplacesDatadogDatadog Custom Metrics, New Relic Query Insights

Why pick each one

Choose Glances if…

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

Choose SQL Exporter if…

  • Extremely flexible
  • Works across DB engines
SQL Exporter details

Frequently asked questions

Is Glances or SQL Exporter better?

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

Are Glances and SQL Exporter free and open-source?

Yes. Glances is licensed under LGPL-3.0 and SQL Exporter under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Glances and SQL Exporter with Docker?

Glances: yes. SQL Exporter: yes.

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