head to head · open source
Grafana vs qtap
Grafana has 76,792 GitHub stars, 14,752 forks, 3,326 open issues and last shipped yesterday. qtap has 1,459 stars, 55 forks, 8 open issues and last shipped 8 days ago. Grafana leads on adoption by 5,163% (76,792 vs 1,459 stars). Grafana is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; qtap is written in C under Apache-2.0. Grafana has attracted 19% as many forks as stars, qtap 4%. Grafana was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (go), 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 | qtap | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 77K | ★ 1.5K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | C |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-11 |
| Forks | ⑂ 15K | ⑂ 55 |
| 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 qtap if
- You want the qtap 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 qtap 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 qtap
Qtap is an Apache 2.0 eBPF agent that intercepts network traffic inside the Linux kernel at the TLS/SSL layer, letting platform engineers, SREs, security auditors, and application developers inspect egress connections and the originating processes without modifying applications, deploying proxies, or managing certificates.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Grafana or qtap more popular?
Grafana has 76,792 GitHub stars and qtap has 1,459. Grafana has the larger community by that measure.
Are Grafana and qtap free?
Both are open source. Grafana is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and qtap under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Grafana and qtap?
Grafana is written in TypeScript and qtap 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 qtap?
Choose Grafana if you want the larger community (76,792 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose qtap if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.