Prometheus vs Smokeping Prober

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?
FeaturePrometheusSmokeping Prober
CategoryMonitoring & StatusMonitoring & Status
LicenseApache-2.0Apache-2.0
LanguageGoGo
Setup difficultyMediumEasy
Min. RAM512 MB64 MB
Deploymentdocker, binary, helmdocker, binary, kubernetes
GitHub stars★ 65,616★ 729
First released20152018
ReplacesDatadogSmokePing, PingPlotter

Why pick each one

Choose Prometheus if…

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

Choose Smokeping Prober if…

  • Drop-in for Prometheus stacks
  • Very lightweight
Smokeping Prober details

Frequently asked questions

Is Prometheus or Smokeping Prober better?

Neither is universally better. Prometheus has the larger community, while Smokeping Prober is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.

Are Prometheus and Smokeping Prober free and open-source?

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

Can I run Prometheus and Smokeping Prober with Docker?

Prometheus: yes. Smokeping Prober: yes.

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