head to head · open source
Grafana vs grafana-dashboards-kubernetes
Grafana has 76,792 GitHub stars, 14,752 forks, 3,326 open issues and last shipped today. grafana-dashboards-kubernetes has 3,798 stars, 485 forks, 14 open issues and last shipped 6 months ago. Grafana leads on adoption by 1,922% (76,792 vs 3,798 stars). Grafana is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; grafana-dashboards-kubernetes is written in various languages under Apache-2.0. Grafana has attracted 19% as many forks as stars, grafana-dashboards-kubernetes 13%. Grafana was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 4 topic tags (dashboard, grafana, hacktoberfest, 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 | grafana-dashboards-kubernetes | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 77K | ★ 3.8K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | — |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-04-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 15K | ⑂ 485 |
| 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 grafana-dashboards-kubernetes if
- You want the grafana-dashboards-kubernetes feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- You evaluated both and grafana-dashboards-kubernetes 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 grafana-dashboards-kubernetes
grafana dashboards kubernetes Table of contents Description Releases Features Dashboards Installation Install manually Install via grafana.com Install with ArgoCD Install with Helm values Install as ConfigMaps Install as ConfigMaps with Terraform Install as GrafanaDashboard with Grafana Operator Known issue(s) Broken panels due to a too high resolution Broken panels on k8s views nodes when a node changes its IP address Broken panels on k8s views nodes due to the nodename label Windows support Contributing Description This repository contains a modern set of Grafana dashboards for Kubernetes.\ They are inspired by…
read the full grafana-dashboards-kubernetes overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Grafana or grafana-dashboards-kubernetes more popular?
Grafana has 76,792 GitHub stars and grafana-dashboards-kubernetes has 3,798. Grafana has the larger community by that measure.
Are Grafana and grafana-dashboards-kubernetes free?
Both are open source. Grafana is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and grafana-dashboards-kubernetes under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Grafana and grafana-dashboards-kubernetes?
Grafana is written in TypeScript and grafana-dashboards-kubernetes in various languages. 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 grafana-dashboards-kubernetes?
Choose Grafana if you want the larger community (76,792 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose grafana-dashboards-kubernetes if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.