Grafana vs Prometheus
Grafana, Prometheus compared on license, free-edition limits, deployment and project health. Change a project below to compare something else.
| Grafana | Prometheus | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Monitoring | Monitoring |
| License | GNU Affero General Public License v3.0Open source (OSI) | Apache License 2.0Open source (OSI) |
| Free edition | Some features paywalled | Not confirmed |
| Deployment | Self-hosted · Cloud | Self-hosted |
| Self-hosting setup | Single container | Single container |
| SSO / SAML | Paid | Not confirmed |
| Role-based access control | Paid | Not confirmed |
| Audit logs | Paid | Not confirmed |
| Multi-user / teams | Free | Not confirmed |
| Backups and restore | Not confirmed | Free |
| API access | Free | Free |
| Support SLA | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
| GitHub stars | 77k | 67k |
| Last release | Sep 29, 2026 | Sep 25, 2026 |
| Alternative to | New Relic, Datadog | New Relic, Datadog |
In short
- Grafana is licensed GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 (open source (osi)). Free edition: some features paywalled.
- Prometheus is licensed Apache License 2.0 (open source (osi)). Free edition: not confirmed.
Each project page lists the official sources behind these answers. Where the official pages do not say, the table shows “Not confirmed”.