JSON Exporter vs Grafana Loki
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?
JSON Exporter
Prometheus exporter that scrapes metrics from JSON APIs
VS
Grafana Loki
Log aggregation system inspired by Prometheus
| Feature | JSON Exporter | Grafana Loki |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Monitoring & Status | Monitoring & Status |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | Go | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | docker, kubernetes, helm |
| GitHub stars | ★ 739 | ★ 28,687 |
| First released | 2019 | 2018 |
| Replaces | Datadog | Splunk, Datadog Logs |
Why pick each one
Choose JSON Exporter if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in Go
- Tiny footprint — runs in 64 MB RAM
Choose Grafana Loki if…
- Cheap to run compared to full-text indexers
- Familiar Prometheus-style labels
Frequently asked questions
Is JSON Exporter or Grafana Loki better?
Neither is universally better. Grafana Loki has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are JSON Exporter and Grafana Loki free and open-source?
Yes. JSON Exporter is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Grafana Loki under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run JSON Exporter and Grafana Loki with Docker?
JSON Exporter: yes. Grafana Loki: yes.