head to head · open source
Grafana vs Exceptionless
Grafana has 76,792 GitHub stars, 14,752 forks, 3,326 open issues and last shipped today. Exceptionless has 2,455 stars, 507 forks, 66 open issues and last shipped today. Grafana leads on adoption by 3,028% (76,792 vs 2,455 stars). Grafana is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; Exceptionless is written in C# under Apache-2.0. Grafana has attracted 19% as many forks as stars, Exceptionless 21%. Grafana was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (elasticsearch), 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 | Exceptionless | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 77K | ★ 2.5K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | C# |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 15K | ⑂ 507 |
| 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 Exceptionless if
- You want the Exceptionless feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C#
- You evaluated both and Exceptionless 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 Exceptionless
The definition of the word exceptionless is: to be without exception. Exceptionless provides real time error reporting for your JavaScript, Node, .NET Core, ASP.NET, Web API, WebForms, WPF, Console, and MVC apps. It organizes the gathered information into simple actionable data that will help your app become exceptionless! ⭐️ We appreciate your star, it helps! Using Exceptionless Refer to the Exceptionless documentation. Hosting Options We provide very reasonably priced hosting at Exceptionless. By using our hosted service, you are supporting the project and helping it get better! We also provide set up and suppo…
read the full Exceptionless overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Grafana or Exceptionless more popular?
Grafana has 76,792 GitHub stars and Exceptionless has 2,455. Grafana has the larger community by that measure.
Are Grafana and Exceptionless free?
Both are open source. Grafana is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Exceptionless under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Grafana and Exceptionless?
Grafana is written in TypeScript and Exceptionless in C#. 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 Exceptionless?
Choose Grafana if you want the larger community (76,792 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Exceptionless if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.