Prometheus vs Uptrace

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?
FeaturePrometheusUptrace
CategoryMonitoring & StatusMonitoring & Status
LicenseApache-2.0BSL-1.1
LanguageGoGo
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM512 MB512 MB
Deploymentdocker, binary, helmdocker, kubernetes, binary
GitHub stars★ 65,616★ 4,256
First released20152021
ReplacesDatadogDatadog, New Relic

Why pick each one

Choose Prometheus if…

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

Choose Uptrace if…

  • Efficient ClickHouse backend
  • Easy to deploy
Uptrace details

Frequently asked questions

Is Prometheus or Uptrace 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 Uptrace free and open-source?

Yes. Prometheus is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Uptrace under BSL-1.1. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Prometheus and Uptrace with Docker?

Prometheus: yes. Uptrace: yes.

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