head to head · open source
Grafana vs Apache Superset
Grafana has 77,638 GitHub stars, 14,905 forks, 3,326 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Apache Superset has 75,392 stars, 18,572 forks, 588 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Grafana leads on adoption by 3% (77,638 vs 75,392 stars). Grafana is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; Apache Superset is written in Python under Apache-2.0. Grafana has attracted 19% as many forks as stars, Apache Superset 25%. Grafana was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (analytics, business-intelligence, data-visualization), 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 | Apache Superset | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 78K | ★ 75K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 15K | ⑂ 19K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Grafana if
- You weight community size — 78K 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 Apache Superset if
- You want the Apache Superset feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and Apache Superset fits your workflow better
About Grafana
The open source platform for monitoring and observability Grafana allows you to query, visualize, alert on and understand your metrics no matter where they are stored. Create, explore, and share dashboards with your team and foster a data driven culture: Visualizations: Fast and flexible client side graphs with a multitude of options. Panel plugins offer many different ways to visualize metrics and logs. Dynamic Dashboards: Create dynamic & reusable dashboards with template variables that appear as dropdowns at the top of the dashboard. Explore Metrics: Explore your data through ad hoc queries and dynamic…
read the full Grafana overview →
About Apache Superset
Superset A modern, enterprise ready business intelligence web application. Documentation User Guide — For analysts and business users. Explore data, build charts, create dashboards, and connect databases. Administrator Guide — Install, configure, and operate Superset. Covers security, scaling, and database drivers. Developer Guide — Contribute to Superset or build on its REST API and extension framework. Why Superset? Supported Databases Release Notes Get Involved Resources Organizations Using Superset Why Superset? Superset is a modern data exploration and data visualization platform. Superset can replace or…
read the full Apache Superset overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Grafana or Apache Superset more popular?
Grafana has 77,638 GitHub stars and Apache Superset has 75,392. Grafana has the larger community by that measure.
Are Grafana and Apache Superset free?
Both are open source. Grafana is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Apache Superset under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Grafana and Apache Superset?
Grafana is written in TypeScript and Apache Superset in Python. 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 Apache Superset?
Choose Grafana if you want the larger community (77,638 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Apache Superset if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.