head to head · open source
Grafana vs kiali
Grafana has 76,792 GitHub stars, 14,752 forks, 3,326 open issues and last shipped today. kiali has 3,637 stars, 570 forks, 79 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Grafana leads on adoption by 2,011% (76,792 vs 3,637 stars). Grafana is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; kiali is written in Go under Apache-2.0. Grafana has attracted 19% as many forks as stars, kiali 16%. Grafana was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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 | kiali | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 77K | ★ 3.6K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 15K | ⑂ 570 |
| 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 kiali if
- You want the kiali feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and kiali 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 kiali
= Kiali image: about Kiali", link=" :toc: macro :toc title: image: 2.0 license", link="LICENSE"] == Introduction link: is a management console for Istio service mesh. Kiali can be quickly installed as an Istio add on or integrated as a trusted component within a production environment. === Table of contents toc::[] === Contributing First, check the link: section on kiali.io], which provides a brief introduction on contributing, how to report issues and request features, and how to reach us. For those interested in making code contributions, please also check the link:./CONTRIBUTING.md[Contribution Guide]. === Get…
read the full kiali overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Grafana or kiali more popular?
Grafana has 76,792 GitHub stars and kiali has 3,637. Grafana has the larger community by that measure.
Are Grafana and kiali free?
Both are open source. Grafana is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and kiali under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Grafana and kiali?
Grafana is written in TypeScript and kiali in Go. 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 kiali?
Choose Grafana if you want the larger community (76,792 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose kiali if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.