Hertzbeat vs Prometheus

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?
FeatureHertzbeatPrometheus
CategoryMonitoring & StatusMonitoring & Status
LicenseApache-2.0Apache-2.0
LanguageJavaGo
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM1,024 MB512 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metaldocker, binary, helm
GitHub stars★ 7,351★ 65,616
First released20222015
ReplacesZabbix, DatadogDatadog

Why pick each one

Choose Hertzbeat if…

  • No agents to deploy
  • Flexible templates
Hertzbeat details

Choose Prometheus if…

  • Powerful query language
  • Reliable and scalable
  • Huge ecosystem
Prometheus details

Frequently asked questions

Is Hertzbeat or Prometheus better?

Neither is universally better. Prometheus has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are Hertzbeat and Prometheus free and open-source?

Yes. Hertzbeat is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Prometheus under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Hertzbeat and Prometheus with Docker?

Hertzbeat: yes. Prometheus: yes.

Related comparisons