Grafana vs Hertzbeat
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted monitoring & status options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Grafana
Open observability dashboards and visualization
VS
Hertzbeat
Real-time monitoring system with customizable templates
| Feature | Grafana | Hertzbeat |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | ≈5-minute setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 100 · Excellent | 91 · Excellent |
| Category | Monitoring & Status | Monitoring & Status |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | TypeScript | Java |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal, helm | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 76,876 | ★ 7,405 |
| First released | 2014 | 2022 |
| Replaces | Datadog | Zabbix, Datadog |
What are Grafana and Hertzbeat?
Grafana
Grafana is an open-source analytics and visualization platform that builds dashboards from many data sources. It targets operators and analysts who need rich observability dashboards. It is deployed via Docker, packages, or Helm.
- Dashboards from many data sources
- Alerting and annotations
- Large plugin ecosystem
- Templating and variables
Hertzbeat
HertzBeat is an open-source real-time monitoring system that checks websites, APIs, databases, servers, and more using customizable YAML templates. It includes alerting and a friendly dashboard with no agents required.
- Agentless monitoring
- Customizable YAML templates
- Threshold alerting
- Built-in dashboards
Grafana vs Hertzbeat: key differences
Grafana is written in TypeScript, while Hertzbeat is built with Java. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for Grafana versus Apache-2.0 for Hertzbeat. Grafana is the lighter option, starting around 512 MB of RAM against 1,024 MB for Hertzbeat. Grafana is the more established project (first released 2014), while Hertzbeat arrived in 2022. Grafana has the considerably larger community, at 76,876 GitHub stars versus 7,405.
Why pick each one
Choose Grafana if…
- Beautiful flexible dashboards
- Broad data source support
- Strong community
Watch out for
- Not a data store itself
- Alerting can be complex
Choose Hertzbeat if…
- No agents to deploy
- Flexible templates
Watch out for
- JVM resource needs
- Newer project
Frequently asked questions
Is Grafana or Hertzbeat better?
Neither is universally better. Grafana has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Grafana and Hertzbeat free and open-source?
Yes. Grafana is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Hertzbeat under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Grafana and Hertzbeat with Docker?
Grafana: yes. Hertzbeat: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Grafana or Hertzbeat?
Grafana has the smaller minimum footprint at 512 MB of RAM, compared to about 1,024 MB for Hertzbeat. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.