Process Exporter vs Vmstat Exporter
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?
Process Exporter
Prometheus exporter for per-process metrics
VS
Vmstat Exporter
Prometheus exporter for assorted system metrics
| Feature | Process Exporter | Vmstat Exporter |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Monitoring & Status | Monitoring & Status |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Go | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 2,137 | ★ 3,608 |
| First released | 2016 | 2016 |
| Replaces | Datadog Agent | Datadog Agent |
Why pick each one
Choose Process Exporter if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (2.1k GitHub stars)
- Written in Go
Choose Vmstat Exporter if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (3.6k GitHub stars)
- Written in Go
Frequently asked questions
Is Process Exporter or Vmstat Exporter better?
Neither is universally better. Vmstat Exporter has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Process Exporter and Vmstat Exporter free and open-source?
Yes. Process Exporter is licensed under MIT and Vmstat Exporter under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Process Exporter and Vmstat Exporter with Docker?
Process Exporter: yes. Vmstat Exporter: yes.