Graphite vs Pulse Monitor
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted monitoring & status options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Graphite
Scalable real-time graphing and time series storage
VS
Pulse Monitor
Self-hosted monitoring of Proxmox and infrastructure
| Feature | Graphite | Pulse Monitor |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 72 · Good | 91 · Excellent |
| Category | Monitoring & Status | Monitoring & Status |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Language | JavaScript | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal, source | docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 6,119 | ★ 6,742 |
| First released | 2008 | 2024 |
| Replaces | Datadog | Datadog |
What are Graphite and Pulse Monitor?
Graphite
Graphite is a monitoring tool that stores numeric time series data and renders graphs of it on demand. It consists of Carbon for metric ingestion, Whisper for storage, and a Django-based web app for visualization.
- Time series storage with Whisper
- On-demand graph rendering
- Plain-text metric protocol
- Widely supported by collectors
Pulse Monitor
Pulse is a self-hosted monitoring application focused on Proxmox VE and PBS environments, surfacing node, VM, and backup health. It provides real-time dashboards and alerting.
- Proxmox monitoring
- VM and node health
- Backup status
- Real-time dashboards
Graphite vs Pulse Monitor: key differences
Graphite is written in JavaScript, while Pulse Monitor is built with Go. Licensing differs — Apache-2.0 for Graphite versus MIT for Pulse Monitor. Pulse Monitor is the lighter option, starting around 256 MB of RAM against 512 MB for Graphite. Graphite is the more established project (first released 2008), while Pulse Monitor arrived in 2024.
Why pick each one
Choose Graphite if…
- Simple metric protocol
- Mature and stable
Watch out for
- Dated architecture
- Scaling requires extra components
Choose Pulse Monitor if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 6.7k GitHub stars
Frequently asked questions
Is Graphite or Pulse Monitor better?
Pulse Monitor is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider Graphite if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Graphite and Pulse Monitor free and open-source?
Yes. Graphite is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Pulse Monitor under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Graphite and Pulse Monitor with Docker?
Graphite: yes. Pulse Monitor: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Graphite or Pulse Monitor?
Pulse Monitor has the smaller minimum footprint at 256 MB of RAM, compared to about 512 MB for Graphite. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.