OpenNMS Horizon 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?
FeatureOpenNMS HorizonPrometheus
CategoryMonitoring & StatusMonitoring & Status
LicenseAGPL-3.0Apache-2.0
LanguageJavaGo
Setup difficultyHardMedium
Min. RAM4,096 MB512 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metaldocker, binary, helm
GitHub stars★ 1,168★ 65,616
First released20002015
ReplacesSolarWinds, PRTGDatadog

Why pick each one

Choose OpenNMS Horizon if…

  • Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Active community (1.2k GitHub stars)
  • Written in Java
OpenNMS Horizon details

Choose Prometheus if…

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

Frequently asked questions

Is OpenNMS Horizon or Prometheus better?

Prometheus is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler medium setup. Consider OpenNMS Horizon if its specific feature set fits your needs better.

Are OpenNMS Horizon and Prometheus free and open-source?

Yes. OpenNMS Horizon is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Prometheus under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run OpenNMS Horizon and Prometheus with Docker?

OpenNMS Horizon: yes. Prometheus: yes.

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