Hertzbeat vs Pushgateway
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted monitoring & status options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Hertzbeat | Pushgateway |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 91 · Excellent | 87 · Excellent |
| Category | Monitoring & Status | Monitoring & Status |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Java | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 1,024 MB | 32 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, kubernetes, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 7,405 | ★ 3,369 |
| First released | 2022 | 2015 |
| Replaces | Zabbix, Datadog | Datadog |
What are Hertzbeat and Pushgateway?
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
Pushgateway
The Prometheus Pushgateway allows ephemeral and batch jobs to expose their metrics to Prometheus. Jobs push metrics to the gateway, which Prometheus then scrapes on its regular schedule.
- Accepts pushed metrics
- Bridges batch jobs to Prometheus
- Persists metrics to disk
- Tiny footprint
Hertzbeat vs Pushgateway: key differences
Hertzbeat is written in Java, while Pushgateway is built with Go. Pushgateway is the lighter option, starting around 32 MB of RAM against 1,024 MB for Hertzbeat. Pushgateway is the more established project (first released 2015), while Hertzbeat arrived in 2022. Hertzbeat has the considerably larger community, at 7,405 GitHub stars versus 3,369.
Why pick each one
Choose Hertzbeat if…
- No agents to deploy
- Flexible templates
Watch out for
- JVM resource needs
- Newer project
Choose Pushgateway if…
- Solves batch job monitoring
- Simple to run
Watch out for
- Not for high-frequency metrics
- Can become a single point of failure
Frequently asked questions
Is Hertzbeat or Pushgateway better?
Neither is universally better. Hertzbeat has the larger community, while Pushgateway is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Hertzbeat and Pushgateway free and open-source?
Yes. Hertzbeat is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Pushgateway under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Hertzbeat and Pushgateway with Docker?
Hertzbeat: yes. Pushgateway: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Hertzbeat or Pushgateway?
Pushgateway has the smaller minimum footprint at 32 MB of RAM, compared to about 1,024 MB for Hertzbeat. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.