Grafana Loki vs Munin

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?
FeatureGrafana LokiMunin
CategoryMonitoring & StatusMonitoring & Status
LicenseAGPL-3.0GPL-2.0
LanguageGoPerl
Setup difficultyMediumEasy
Min. RAM512 MB128 MB
Deploymentdocker, kubernetes, helmbare-metal, source
GitHub stars★ 28,687★ 2,136
First released20182004
ReplacesSplunk, Datadog LogsDatadog

Why pick each one

Choose Grafana Loki if…

  • Cheap to run compared to full-text indexers
  • Familiar Prometheus-style labels
Grafana Loki details

Choose Munin if…

  • Very easy to get started
  • Large library of plugins
Munin details

Frequently asked questions

Is Grafana Loki or Munin better?

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

Are Grafana Loki and Munin free and open-source?

Yes. Grafana Loki is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Munin under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Grafana Loki and Munin with Docker?

Grafana Loki: yes. Munin: check the project docs for container support.

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