Grafana Beyla vs PHP-FPM Exporter
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted monitoring & status options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Grafana Beyla | PHP-FPM Exporter |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 86 · Excellent | 42 · Fair |
| Category | Monitoring & Status | Monitoring & Status |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Language | Go | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, binary | docker, binary, kubernetes |
| GitHub stars | ★ 2,135 | ★ 720 |
| First released | 2023 | 2017 |
| Replaces | Datadog APM, New Relic | New Relic PHP, Datadog APM |
What are Grafana Beyla and PHP-FPM Exporter?
Grafana Beyla
Beyla is an eBPF-based tool that automatically instruments applications to produce metrics and traces without any code changes. It exports data in Prometheus and OpenTelemetry formats for existing observability stacks.
- eBPF auto-instrumentation
- No code changes needed
- Prometheus metrics export
- OpenTelemetry traces
PHP-FPM Exporter
PHP-FPM Exporter scrapes the PHP-FPM status page and exposes pool metrics such as active processes, request queue length, and slow requests as Prometheus metrics. It helps operators monitor PHP application worker health.
- FPM pool process metrics
- Slow request tracking
- Single static binary
- Works with multiple pools
Grafana Beyla vs PHP-FPM Exporter: key differences
Both projects are written in Go. Licensing differs — Apache-2.0 for Grafana Beyla versus MIT for PHP-FPM Exporter. PHP-FPM Exporter is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 128 MB for Grafana Beyla. PHP-FPM Exporter is the more established project (first released 2017), while Grafana Beyla arrived in 2023. Grafana Beyla has the considerably larger community, at 2,135 GitHub stars versus 720.
Why pick each one
Choose Grafana Beyla if…
- Instrument without code
- Low overhead
Watch out for
- Requires modern kernel
- Limited language depth
Choose PHP-FPM Exporter if…
- Easy to add to PHP stacks
- No dependencies
Watch out for
- Requires FPM status enabled
- Metrics only, no UI
Frequently asked questions
Is Grafana Beyla or PHP-FPM Exporter better?
Neither is universally better. Grafana Beyla has the larger community, while PHP-FPM Exporter is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Grafana Beyla and PHP-FPM Exporter free and open-source?
Yes. Grafana Beyla is licensed under Apache-2.0 and PHP-FPM Exporter under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Grafana Beyla and PHP-FPM Exporter with Docker?
Grafana Beyla: yes. PHP-FPM Exporter: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Grafana Beyla or PHP-FPM Exporter?
PHP-FPM Exporter has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 128 MB for Grafana Beyla. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.