head to head · open source
Grafana vs logging-log4net
Grafana has 77,638 GitHub stars, 14,905 forks, 3,326 open issues and last shipped yesterday. logging-log4net has 936 stars, 335 forks, 6 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. Grafana leads on adoption by 8,195% (77,638 vs 936 stars). Grafana is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; logging-log4net is written in C# under Apache-2.0. Grafana has attracted 19% as many forks as stars, logging-log4net 36%. 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 | logging-log4net | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 78K | ★ 936 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | C# |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-28 |
| Forks | ⑂ 15K | ⑂ 335 |
| 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 logging-log4net if
- You want the logging-log4net 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 logging-log4net 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 logging-log4net
log4net Introduction Apache log4net is a sub project of the Apache Logging Services project. Apache log4net graduated from the Apache Incubator in February 2007. Web site: Documentation For the latest documentation see the log4net web site at: Extensions log4net.Ext.Mail MailKit based SMTP appender for sending log events via email (recommended replacement for the deprecated SmtpAppender) Contributing log4net development happens on Github and on our mailing list. Please join the mailing list and discuss bigger changes before working on them. For bigger changes we must ask you to sign a Contributor License…
read the full logging-log4net overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Grafana or logging-log4net more popular?
Grafana has 77,638 GitHub stars and logging-log4net has 936. Grafana has the larger community by that measure.
Are Grafana and logging-log4net free?
Both are open source. Grafana is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and logging-log4net under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Grafana and logging-log4net?
Grafana is written in TypeScript and logging-log4net 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 logging-log4net?
Choose Grafana if you want the larger community (77,638 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose logging-log4net if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.