head to head · open source
Grafana vs VictoriaLogs
Grafana has 76,792 GitHub stars, 14,752 forks, 3,326 open issues and last shipped today. VictoriaLogs has 2,291 stars, 193 forks, 314 open issues and last shipped today. Grafana leads on adoption by 3,252% (76,792 vs 2,291 stars). Grafana is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; VictoriaLogs is written in Go under Apache-2.0. Grafana has attracted 19% as many forks as stars, VictoriaLogs 8%. Grafana was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (elasticsearch, grafana), 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 | VictoriaLogs | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 77K | ★ 2.3K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 15K | ⑂ 193 |
| 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 VictoriaLogs if
- You want the VictoriaLogs feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and VictoriaLogs 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 VictoriaLogs
VictoriaLogs VictoriaLogs is a high performance, lightweight, zero config, schema free database for logs that is easy to use and scales both vertically and horizontally, from very small setups to large scale deployments handling terabytes per day. Both the single node and cluster versions of VictoriaLogs are open source and free to use. Here are some resources to help you get started with VictoriaLogs: Playgrounds: built in web UI, Grafana plugin for VictoriaLogs, SQL to LogsQL, LogQL to LogsQL Documentation Available: Binary releases, docker images Docker Hub and Quay, Source code Deployment types: Single node v…
read the full VictoriaLogs overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Grafana or VictoriaLogs more popular?
Grafana has 76,792 GitHub stars and VictoriaLogs has 2,291. Grafana has the larger community by that measure.
Are Grafana and VictoriaLogs free?
Both are open source. Grafana is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and VictoriaLogs under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Grafana and VictoriaLogs?
Grafana is written in TypeScript and VictoriaLogs 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 VictoriaLogs?
Choose Grafana if you want the larger community (76,792 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose VictoriaLogs if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.