Sampler Dashboard vs Prometheus

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted apps from related categories — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
FeatureSampler DashboardPrometheus
CategoryDashboards & StartpagesMonitoring & Status
LicenseGPL-3.0Apache-2.0
LanguageGoGo
Setup difficultyEasyMedium
Min. RAM64 MB512 MB
Deploymentbare-metal, binarydocker, binary, helm
GitHub stars★ 14,727★ 65,616
First released20192015
ReplacesGrafanaDatadog

Why pick each one

Choose Sampler Dashboard if…

  • Runs in a terminal
  • No web stack needed
Sampler Dashboard details

Choose Prometheus if…

  • Powerful query language
  • Reliable and scalable
  • Huge ecosystem
Prometheus details

Frequently asked questions

Is Sampler Dashboard or Prometheus better?

Neither is universally better. Prometheus has the larger community, while Sampler Dashboard is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.

Are Sampler Dashboard and Prometheus free and open-source?

Yes. Sampler Dashboard is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Prometheus under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Sampler Dashboard and Prometheus with Docker?

Sampler Dashboard: check the project docs for container support. Prometheus: yes.

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