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It's a split decision.
Grafana is a hosted observability platform for teams that want to bring metrics, logs, traces, and other telemetry together, with a free tier and usage-based charges as they scale. Prometheus is an open-source metrics monitoring system you run yourself, with PromQL, alerting, and no software usage or seat limits. Choose Grafana for a broader hosted stack and Prometheus for control over metrics collection and storage. They can also work together: Grafana supports Prometheus as an integration.
01Side by side
| Grafana | Prometheus | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Hosted Cloud: platform fee plus usage | Self-managed open source; no software fee |
| Free tier | Free; 10k active series, 50 GB/month | Free; no usage or seat limits |
| Open source and licence | Open source; licence not named | Open source under Apache 2.0 |
| Self-hosting | Grafana Cloud; self-hosting not stated | Self-hostable, independent local-storage servers |
| Integrations | OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, hundreds of plugins | Hundreds of official and community integrations |
| Deployment model | Hosted Grafana Cloud platform | Independent servers with local storage |
| Platforms | Web | Web |
| Limits and scaling | Free-tier caps; Pro adds usage charges | No software usage limits imposed |
Grafana Choose Grafana if
- Choose Grafana if you want hosted observability across multiple telemetry signals.
- Choose Grafana if you need a free entry point with published usage allowances.
- Choose Grafana if you want Prometheus and OpenTelemetry integrations in one platform.
Prometheus Choose Prometheus if
- Choose Prometheus if you want self-managed metrics monitoring.
- Choose Prometheus if PromQL and its dimensional data model fit your workflow.
- Choose Prometheus if you want Apache 2.0 software without usage fees.
02Pricing at real usage
Grafana Cloud Free costs $0 and includes 14-day retention for metrics, logs, traces, profiles, and k6, plus 10k active metric series and 50 GB/month for logs, traces, and profiles. Pro starts with a $19/month platform fee; usage above included allowances is pay-as-you-go. For example, the pricing page lists Pro logs at $0.050/GB processed, $0.400/GB written, and $0.100/GB retained. Costs can also depend on hosts, sessions, or active AI users, depending on the product. Enterprise requires a $25,000 annual spend commit. Prometheus is free under Apache 2.0, with no usage or seat limits imposed. It has no software usage bill, but you operate the servers and storage yourself, so infrastructure costs sit outside the software price. Compare Grafana’s telemetry and product usage with your expected workload before estimating a bill.
03API, SDKs and integration
Grafana Cloud connects existing tools and data sources through open standards including OpenTelemetry and Prometheus, with hundreds of plugins and integrations. The Grafana homepage does not name specific SDKs, API endpoints, or a CLI, so check its current developer documentation for the interfaces your code needs. Prometheus provides official and community instrumentation libraries covering most major languages, plus hundreds of integrations that extract metrics from existing systems. Its dimensional time-series model is queried with PromQL, which also defines alerting rules; a separate Alertmanager component handles notifications and silencing. Prometheus is developed in Go, and its homepage describes statically linked binaries that are easy to deploy across environments. Its integrations include Kubernetes and other cloud and container managers. For a build decision, compare the specific instrumentation libraries and data-source integrations your services need rather than treating the products as equivalent APIs.
04Open source, self-hosting and lock-in
Both products are open source, but Prometheus names its licence: all components are available under Apache 2.0 on GitHub. Its servers operate independently and rely on local storage, and Prometheus is self-hostable. Grafana is open source and Grafana Cloud is its hosted observability platform; the Grafana homepage does not specify self-hosting options or a licence for the product as a whole. Grafana says teams can connect existing tools and data sources using open standards, including OpenTelemetry and Prometheus, which can reduce the need to replace a current stack. That does not establish an export or migration path. The vendors do not publish data-export specifics on their homepages. Before choosing, ask Grafana about export formats and retention, and confirm how Prometheus storage and migration fit your operational requirements.
Questions people ask
What is the use of Grafana and Prometheus?
Prometheus instruments, collects, stores, and queries metrics for monitoring and alerting. Grafana Cloud brings telemetry signals together for visualization and observability. Grafana lists Prometheus as an integration, so teams can use Prometheus for metrics and Grafana to explore observability data.
Which database is best for Grafana?
It depends on the data you need to query. Prometheus is a metrics monitoring system with a dimensional time-series model and PromQL, and Grafana supports Prometheus integration. For other telemetry or data sources, check Grafana’s integrations for the systems already in your stack.
What are some alternatives to Grafana?
Prometheus is an option for open-source metrics monitoring, but it is not a direct substitute for Grafana Cloud’s broader observability platform. Prometheus focuses on collecting, storing, and querying metrics, with alerting and integrations for existing systems.
What is the difference between Splunk and Grafana?
Grafana Cloud is an observability platform for telemetry, including logs, metrics, and traces, with usage-based pricing. A direct comparison with Splunk depends on the specific Splunk product and deployment you mean. Compare supported data sources, retention, and pricing for your workload.