Grafana Mimir vs Uptrace
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?
Grafana Mimir
Scalable long-term storage for Prometheus metrics
VS
Uptrace
OpenTelemetry-based tracing, metrics, and logs tool
| Feature | Grafana Mimir | Uptrace |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Monitoring & Status | Monitoring & Status |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | BSL-1.1 |
| Language | Go | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 1,024 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, helm | docker, kubernetes, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 5,201 | ★ 4,256 |
| First released | 2022 | 2021 |
| Replaces | Datadog, Chronosphere | Datadog, New Relic |
Why pick each one
Choose Grafana Mimir if…
- Proven at billion-series scale
- Easier to operate than Cortex
Frequently asked questions
Is Grafana Mimir or Uptrace better?
Neither is universally better. Grafana Mimir has the larger community, while Uptrace is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Grafana Mimir and Uptrace free and open-source?
Yes. Grafana Mimir is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Uptrace under BSL-1.1. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Grafana Mimir and Uptrace with Docker?
Grafana Mimir: yes. Uptrace: yes.