Graphite vs Grafana Mimir
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
Grafana Mimir
Scalable long-term storage for Prometheus metrics
| Feature | Graphite | Grafana Mimir |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 72 · Good | 90 · Excellent |
| Category | Monitoring & Status | Monitoring & Status |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | JavaScript | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal, source | docker, kubernetes, helm |
| GitHub stars | ★ 6,119 | ★ 5,238 |
| First released | 2008 | 2022 |
| Replaces | Datadog | Datadog, Chronosphere |
What are Graphite and Grafana Mimir?
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
Grafana Mimir
Grafana Mimir is an open-source, horizontally scalable, highly available, multi-tenant time series database for Prometheus and OpenTelemetry metrics. It is designed to store and query hundreds of millions of active series.
- Massive cardinality support
- Multi-tenant by design
- Fast query engine
- Object storage backend
Graphite vs Grafana Mimir: key differences
Graphite is written in JavaScript, while Grafana Mimir is built with Go. Licensing differs — Apache-2.0 for Graphite versus AGPL-3.0 for Grafana Mimir. Graphite is the lighter option, starting around 512 MB of RAM against 1,024 MB for Grafana Mimir. Graphite is the more established project (first released 2008), while Grafana Mimir arrived in 2022.
Why pick each one
Choose Graphite if…
- Simple metric protocol
- Mature and stable
Watch out for
- Dated architecture
- Scaling requires extra components
Choose Grafana Mimir if…
- Proven at billion-series scale
- Easier to operate than Cortex
Watch out for
- Resource intensive
- Complex for small homelabs
Frequently asked questions
Is Graphite or Grafana Mimir better?
Graphite is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler medium setup. Consider Grafana Mimir if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Graphite and Grafana Mimir free and open-source?
Yes. Graphite is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Grafana Mimir under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Graphite and Grafana Mimir with Docker?
Graphite: yes. Grafana Mimir: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Graphite or Grafana Mimir?
Graphite has the smaller minimum footprint at 512 MB of RAM, compared to about 1,024 MB for Grafana Mimir. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.