Graphite vs Prometheus

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted monitoring & status options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
FeatureGraphitePrometheus
CategoryMonitoring & StatusMonitoring & Status
LicenseApache-2.0Apache-2.0
LanguageJavaScriptGo
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM512 MB512 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metal, sourcedocker, binary, helm
GitHub stars★ 6,102★ 65,616
First released20082015
ReplacesDatadogDatadog

Why pick each one

Choose Graphite if…

  • Simple metric protocol
  • Mature and stable
Graphite details

Choose Prometheus if…

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

Frequently asked questions

Is Graphite or Prometheus better?

Neither is universally better. Prometheus has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are Graphite and Prometheus free and open-source?

Yes. Graphite is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Prometheus under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Graphite and Prometheus with Docker?

Graphite: yes. Prometheus: yes.

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