Heimdall vs Prometheus

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?
FeatureHeimdallPrometheus
CategoryDashboards & StartpagesMonitoring & Status
LicenseMITApache-2.0
LanguagePHPGo
Setup difficultyEasyMedium
Min. RAM256 MB512 MB
Deploymentdockerdocker, binary, helm
GitHub stars★ 9,291★ 65,616
First released20172015
ReplacesHeimdallDatadog

Why pick each one

Choose Heimdall if…

  • Very simple to set up
  • Clean look
  • Low maintenance
Heimdall details

Choose Prometheus if…

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

Frequently asked questions

Is Heimdall or Prometheus better?

Neither is universally better. Prometheus has the larger community, while Heimdall is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.

Are Heimdall and Prometheus free and open-source?

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

Can I run Heimdall and Prometheus with Docker?

Heimdall: yes. Prometheus: yes.

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