Grafana Faro vs HyperDX
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted monitoring & status options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
HyperDX
Open-source observability for logs, traces, and session replay
| Feature | Grafana Faro | HyperDX |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 83 · Excellent | 93 · Excellent |
| Category | Monitoring & Status | Monitoring & Status |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Language | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes | docker, kubernetes, helm |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,134 | ★ 9,912 |
| First released | 2022 | 2023 |
| Replaces | Sentry, LogRocket | Datadog, Sentry |
What are Grafana Faro and HyperDX?
Grafana Faro
Grafana Faro is a frontend observability web SDK that captures real-user telemetry, errors, and traces from browser applications. Data is shipped to a self-hosted collector for analysis.
- Real-user monitoring
- Error capture
- Browser traces
- Grafana integration
HyperDX
HyperDX is an open-source observability platform that correlates logs, metrics, traces, and session replays in one place. Built on OpenTelemetry and ClickHouse, it helps developers debug production issues quickly.
- Correlated logs, traces, and replays
- OpenTelemetry-native
- ClickHouse storage
- Full-text log search
Grafana Faro vs HyperDX: key differences
Both projects are written in TypeScript. Licensing differs — Apache-2.0 for Grafana Faro versus MIT for HyperDX. Grafana Faro is the lighter option, starting around 256 MB of RAM against 1,024 MB for HyperDX. HyperDX has the considerably larger community, at 9,912 GitHub stars versus 1,134.
Why pick each one
Choose Grafana Faro if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Kubernetes-ready with Helm charts available
- Active community (1.1k GitHub stars)
Choose HyperDX if…
- Session replay correlation
- Developer-focused UX
Watch out for
- Newer project
- Requires ClickHouse
Frequently asked questions
Is Grafana Faro or HyperDX better?
Neither is universally better. HyperDX has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Grafana Faro and HyperDX free and open-source?
Yes. Grafana Faro is licensed under Apache-2.0 and HyperDX under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Grafana Faro and HyperDX with Docker?
Grafana Faro: yes. HyperDX: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Grafana Faro or HyperDX?
Grafana Faro has the smaller minimum footprint at 256 MB of RAM, compared to about 1,024 MB for HyperDX. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.