head to head · open source
Grafana Loki vs Vortex
Grafana Loki has 28,917 GitHub stars, 4,115 forks, 1,620 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Vortex has 599 stars, 338 forks, 44 open issues and last shipped 10 months ago. Grafana Loki leads on adoption by 4,728% (28,917 vs 599 stars). Grafana Loki is written in Go under AGPL-3.0; Vortex is written in Java under Apache-2.0. Grafana Loki has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, Vortex 56%. Grafana Loki was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (logging), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Grafana Loki | Vortex | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 29K | ★ 599 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2025-11-13 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.1K | ⑂ 338 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Grafana Loki if
- You weight community size — 29K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Vortex if
- You want the Vortex feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and Vortex fits your workflow better
About Grafana Loki
Grafana Loki is a log aggregation system designed as the log oriented counterpart to Prometheus. It operates within the cloud native observability ecosystem, specifically targeting Kubernetes and containerized environments. Loki avoids expensive full text indexing by indexing only metadata labels attached to log streams, storing the raw log content in compressed form. This design choice makes Loki significantly simpler to operate and more cost effective than traditional log systems that index every word.
read the full Grafana Loki overview →
About Vortex
Vortex is a Java based Discord moderation bot, licensed under Apache 2.0, that pairs a moderation and logging suite with an auto moderator so server staff can track members, keep moderators accountable, and filter certain types of behaviour without constant human intervention.
read the full Vortex overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Grafana Loki or Vortex more popular?
Grafana Loki has 28,917 GitHub stars and Vortex has 599. Grafana Loki has the larger community by that measure.
Are Grafana Loki and Vortex free?
Both are open source. Grafana Loki is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Vortex under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Grafana Loki and Vortex?
Grafana Loki is written in Go and Vortex in Java. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Grafana Loki or Vortex?
Choose Grafana Loki if you want the larger community (28,917 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Vortex if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.