Sampler Dashboard vs Vector
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?
Sampler Dashboard
Terminal dashboard for visualizing shell command output
VS
Vector
High-performance observability data pipeline
| Feature | Sampler Dashboard | Vector |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Dashboards & Startpages | Monitoring & Status |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MPL-2.0 |
| Language | Go | Rust |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, binary | docker, kubernetes, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 14,727 | ★ 22,315 |
| First released | 2019 | 2019 |
| Replaces | Grafana | Logstash, Fluentd |
Why pick each one
Frequently asked questions
Is Sampler Dashboard or Vector better?
Neither is universally better. Vector 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 Vector free and open-source?
Yes. Sampler Dashboard is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Vector under MPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Sampler Dashboard and Vector with Docker?
Sampler Dashboard: check the project docs for container support. Vector: yes.