head to head · open source
Grafana vs Microsoft365DSC
Grafana has 76,792 GitHub stars, 14,752 forks, 3,326 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Microsoft365DSC has 2,393 stars, 677 forks, 66 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Grafana leads on adoption by 3,109% (76,792 vs 2,393 stars). Grafana is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; Microsoft365DSC is written in PowerShell under MIT. Grafana has attracted 19% as many forks as stars, Microsoft365DSC 28%. Microsoft365DSC was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (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 | Microsoft365DSC | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 77K | ★ 2.4K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | PowerShell |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 15K | ⑂ 677 |
| 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 Microsoft365DSC if
- You want the Microsoft365DSC feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches PowerShell
- You evaluated both and Microsoft365DSC 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 Microsoft365DSC
Microsoft365DSC is a PowerShell Desired State Configuration module that automates the deployment, configuration, extraction, reporting and monitoring of Microsoft 365 tenant settings, and it is built for Microsoft 365 administrators and DevOps teams who want tenant configuration managed as code rather than by hand in individual admin portals.
read the full Microsoft365DSC overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Grafana or Microsoft365DSC more popular?
Grafana has 76,792 GitHub stars and Microsoft365DSC has 2,393. Grafana has the larger community by that measure.
Are Grafana and Microsoft365DSC free?
Both are open source. Grafana is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Microsoft365DSC under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Grafana and Microsoft365DSC?
Grafana is written in TypeScript and Microsoft365DSC in PowerShell. 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 Microsoft365DSC?
Choose Grafana if you want the larger community (76,792 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Microsoft365DSC if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.