head to head · open source
Grafana vs viztracer
Grafana has 77,638 GitHub stars, 14,905 forks, 3,326 open issues and last shipped yesterday. viztracer has 7,772 stars, 480 forks, 33 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. Grafana leads on adoption by 899% (77,638 vs 7,772 stars). Grafana is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; viztracer is written in Python under Apache-2.0. Grafana has attracted 19% as many forks as stars, viztracer 6%. 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 | viztracer | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 78K | ★ 7.8K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-09-26 |
| Forks | ⑂ 15K | ⑂ 480 |
| 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 viztracer if
- You want the viztracer feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and viztracer 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 viztracer
VizTracer VizTracer is a low overhead logging/debugging/profiling tool that can trace and visualize your python code execution. The front end UI is powered by Perfetto. Use "AWSD" to zoom/navigate . More help can be found in "Support Controls". Highlights Detailed function entry/exit information on timeline with source code Super easy to use, no source code change for most features, no package dependency Low overhead, probably the fastest tracer in the market Supports threading, multiprocessing, subprocess, async and PyTorch Powerful front end, able to render GB level trace smoothly Works on Linux/MacOS/Windows…
read the full viztracer overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Grafana or viztracer more popular?
Grafana has 77,638 GitHub stars and viztracer has 7,772. Grafana has the larger community by that measure.
Are Grafana and viztracer free?
Both are open source. Grafana is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and viztracer under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Grafana and viztracer?
Grafana is written in TypeScript and viztracer in Python. 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 viztracer?
Choose Grafana if you want the larger community (77,638 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose viztracer if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.