head to head · open source
Grafana vs logchef
Grafana has 76,792 GitHub stars, 14,752 forks, 3,326 open issues and last shipped yesterday. logchef has 899 stars, 57 forks, 9 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. Grafana leads on adoption by 8,442% (76,792 vs 899 stars). Grafana is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; logchef is written in Go under AGPL-3.0. Grafana has attracted 19% as many forks as stars, logchef 6%. 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 | logchef | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 77K | ★ 899 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 15K | ⑂ 57 |
| 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 logchef if
- You want the logchef feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and logchef 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 logchef
Logchef is a lightweight, self hosted log analytics and observability interface for ClickHouse and VictoriaLogs, shipped as a single Go binary under the AGPL 3.0 licence, intended for teams that want a strong query and control plane on top of the log backends they already run.
read the full logchef overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Grafana or logchef more popular?
Grafana has 76,792 GitHub stars and logchef has 899. Grafana has the larger community by that measure.
Are Grafana and logchef free?
Both are open source. Grafana is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and logchef under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Grafana and logchef?
Grafana is written in TypeScript and logchef 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 logchef?
Choose Grafana if you want the larger community (76,792 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose logchef if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.