Prometheus vs Sensu Go

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?
FeaturePrometheusSensu Go
CategoryMonitoring & StatusMonitoring & Status
LicenseApache-2.0MIT
LanguageGoGo
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM512 MB512 MB
Deploymentdocker, binary, helmdocker, kubernetes, binary
GitHub stars★ 65,616★ 1,108
First released20152018
ReplacesDatadogDatadog, PagerDuty

Why pick each one

Choose Prometheus if…

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

Choose Sensu Go if…

  • Declarative configuration
  • Flexible event pipeline
Sensu Go details

Frequently asked questions

Is Prometheus or Sensu Go 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 Prometheus and Sensu Go free and open-source?

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

Can I run Prometheus and Sensu Go with Docker?

Prometheus: yes. Sensu Go: yes.

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