Pulse Monitor vs VictoriaMetrics
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted monitoring & status options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
VictoriaMetrics
Fast, cost-effective time series database and monitoring solution
| Feature | Pulse Monitor | VictoriaMetrics |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 91 · Excellent | 95 · Excellent |
| Category | Monitoring & Status | Monitoring & Status |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Go | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker | docker, kubernetes, helm |
| GitHub stars | ★ 6,742 | ★ 17,760 |
| First released | 2024 | 2018 |
| Replaces | Datadog | Datadog, Grafana Cloud |
What are Pulse Monitor and VictoriaMetrics?
Pulse Monitor
Pulse is a self-hosted monitoring application focused on Proxmox VE and PBS environments, surfacing node, VM, and backup health. It provides real-time dashboards and alerting.
- Proxmox monitoring
- VM and node health
- Backup status
- Real-time dashboards
VictoriaMetrics
VictoriaMetrics is a fast, cost-effective, and scalable monitoring solution and time series database. It is a drop-in replacement for Prometheus storage with lower resource usage and a high-performance query engine.
- Low memory footprint
- MetricsQL query language
- Single-binary or cluster mode
- Prometheus-compatible
Pulse Monitor vs VictoriaMetrics: key differences
Both projects are written in Go. Licensing differs — MIT for Pulse Monitor versus Apache-2.0 for VictoriaMetrics. VictoriaMetrics is the more established project (first released 2018), while Pulse Monitor arrived in 2024. VictoriaMetrics has the considerably larger community, at 17,760 GitHub stars versus 6,742.
Why pick each one
Choose Pulse Monitor if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 6.7k GitHub stars
Choose VictoriaMetrics if…
- Excellent compression and speed
- Easy single-binary deployment
Watch out for
- MetricsQL differs slightly from PromQL
- Smaller ecosystem than Prometheus
Frequently asked questions
Is Pulse Monitor or VictoriaMetrics better?
Neither is universally better. VictoriaMetrics has the larger community, while Pulse Monitor is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Pulse Monitor and VictoriaMetrics free and open-source?
Yes. Pulse Monitor is licensed under MIT and VictoriaMetrics under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Pulse Monitor and VictoriaMetrics with Docker?
Pulse Monitor: yes. VictoriaMetrics: yes.