Kibana vs SigNoz
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?
Kibana
Visualization and exploration for Elasticsearch data
VS
SigNoz
Open-source APM and observability platform
| Feature | Kibana | SigNoz |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Monitoring & Status | Developer Tools & Git |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 1,024 MB | 4,096 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, binary | docker, kubernetes, helm |
| GitHub stars | ★ 21,230 | ★ 31,790 |
| First released | 2013 | 2021 |
| Replaces | Splunk, Datadog | Datadog, New Relic |
Why pick each one
Choose SigNoz if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Kubernetes-ready with Helm charts available
- Mature project with 31.8k GitHub stars
Frequently asked questions
Is Kibana or SigNoz better?
Neither is universally better. SigNoz has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Kibana and SigNoz free and open-source?
Yes. Kibana is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and SigNoz under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Kibana and SigNoz with Docker?
Kibana: yes. SigNoz: yes.