head to head · open source
Grafana vs Cachet
Grafana has 76,791 GitHub stars, 14,749 forks, 3,326 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Cachet has 15,242 stars, 1,632 forks, 7 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Grafana leads on adoption by 404% (76,791 vs 15,242 stars). Grafana is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; Cachet is written in PHP under a custom or non-standard licence. Grafana has attracted 19% as many forks as stars, Cachet 11%. Grafana was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
← all 8884 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Grafana | Cachet | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 77K | ★ 15K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | TypeScript | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 15K | ⑂ 1.6K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Grafana if
- You weight community size — 77K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Cachet if
- You want the Cachet feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and Cachet fits your workflow better
About Grafana
Grafana is an open source observability platform for visualizing metrics, logs, and traces across diverse data sources. It runs in the infrastructure and operations ecosystem, designed for teams needing unified visibility into system behavior without vendor lock in. Built with TypeScript and Go, it provides a composable architecture that integrates with existing toolchains.
read the full Grafana overview →
About Cachet
Cachet is an open source, self hosted status page system. It lives in the PHP and Laravel ecosystem, and it is categorized under Infrastructure and Operations and Monitoring and Observability. The project is intended for teams that need a dedicated place to communicate service status and downtime in a transparent way.
read the full Cachet overview →
More in Infrastructure & Operations
Related comparisons
More Monitoring & Observability projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Monitoring & Observability field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Grafana or Cachet more popular?
Grafana has 76,791 GitHub stars and Cachet has 15,242. Grafana has the larger community by that measure.
Are Grafana and Cachet free?
Both are open source. Grafana is licensed under AGPL-3.0, and Cachet has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Grafana and Cachet?
Grafana is written in TypeScript and Cachet in PHP. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Grafana or Cachet?
Choose Grafana if you want the larger community (76,791 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Cachet if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.