Grafana Mimir vs Zabbix
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
Zabbix
Enterprise-grade open-source monitoring solution
| Feature | Grafana Mimir | Zabbix |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Monitoring & Status | Monitoring & Status |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | Go | Go Template |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 1,024 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, helm | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 5,201 | ★ 6,228 |
| First released | 2022 | 2001 |
| Replaces | Datadog, Chronosphere | Datadog, Nagios |
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 Zabbix better?
Neither is universally better. Zabbix has the larger community; both share a hard setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Grafana Mimir and Zabbix free and open-source?
Yes. Grafana Mimir is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Zabbix under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Grafana Mimir and Zabbix with Docker?
Grafana Mimir: yes. Zabbix: yes.