head to head · open source
Grafana vs databuff
Grafana has 77,638 GitHub stars, 14,905 forks, 3,326 open issues and last shipped yesterday. databuff has 720 stars, 144 forks, 11 open issues and last shipped 28 days ago. Grafana leads on adoption by 10,683% (77,638 vs 720 stars). Grafana is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; databuff is written in Java under AGPL-3.0. Grafana has attracted 19% as many forks as stars, databuff 20%. Grafana was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (monitoring), 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 | databuff | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 78K | ★ 720 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Java |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-06 |
| Forks | ⑂ 15K | ⑂ 144 |
| 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 databuff if
- You want the databuff feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and databuff 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 databuff
DataBuff — AI Native APM Built On Opentelemetry Mission: build the strongest OpenTelemetry APM backend AI native · OTLP native · multi agent out of the box · self hosted traces, metrics, topology Live Demo · Documentation · Open Source APM · 简体中文 · Community AI multi agent troubleshooting · Service health · Call graph topology Keywords : AI Native APM · OpenTelemetry APM · OTLP Backend · Multi Agent · Distributed Tracing · AIOps · Open Source APM · MCP · Self Hosted Observability What is DataBuff DataBuff is an AI native APM backend built on Opentelemetry — ingest traces, metrics, and logs via OTLP, with full…
read the full databuff overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Grafana or databuff more popular?
Grafana has 77,638 GitHub stars and databuff has 720. Grafana has the larger community by that measure.
Are Grafana and databuff free?
Both are open source. Grafana is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and databuff under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Grafana and databuff?
Grafana is written in TypeScript and databuff 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 or databuff?
Choose Grafana if you want the larger community (77,638 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose databuff if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.