head to head · open source
Grafana vs SysmonTools
Grafana has 76,792 GitHub stars, 14,752 forks, 3,326 open issues and last shipped today. SysmonTools has 1,662 stars, 209 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped 6 months ago. Grafana leads on adoption by 4,520% (76,792 vs 1,662 stars). Grafana is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; SysmonTools is written in TypeScript under GPL-3.0. Grafana has attracted 19% as many forks as stars, SysmonTools 13%. Grafana was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (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 | SysmonTools | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 77K | ★ 1.7K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-04-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 15K | ⑂ 209 |
| 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 SysmonTools if
- You want the SysmonTools feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and SysmonTools 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 SysmonTools
Sysmon Tools A collection of utilities for analyzing, visualizing, and managing Microsoft Sysmon logs — designed for security analysts, DFIR specialists, and threat hunters. What's New in v2.0 Sysmon View has been rewritten from the ground up as a fully open source desktop application — a long requested change by the community. Built with Electron + React + TypeScript , the entire codebase is now open and free of commercial dependencies. Key improvements: Modern dark themed UI with a streamlined analyst workflow Interactive session diagrams with freedom to move and arrange nodes Collapsible nodes — collapse/expan…
read the full SysmonTools overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Grafana or SysmonTools more popular?
Grafana has 76,792 GitHub stars and SysmonTools has 1,662. Grafana has the larger community by that measure.
Are Grafana and SysmonTools free?
Both are open source. Grafana is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and SysmonTools under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Grafana and SysmonTools?
Grafana is written in TypeScript and SysmonTools in TypeScript. 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 SysmonTools?
Choose Grafana if you want the larger community (76,792 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose SysmonTools if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.