head to head · open source
Prometheus vs lowdb
Prometheus has 66,133 GitHub stars, 10,846 forks, 890 open issues and last shipped yesterday. lowdb has 22,580 stars, 962 forks, 16 open issues and last shipped 6 months ago. Prometheus leads on adoption by 193% (66,133 vs 22,580 stars). Prometheus is written in Go under Apache-2.0; lowdb is written in JavaScript under MIT. Prometheus has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, lowdb 4%. Prometheus 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Prometheus | lowdb | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 66K | ★ 23K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-03-27 |
| Forks | ⑂ 11K | ⑂ 962 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Prometheus if
- You weight community size — 66K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick lowdb if
- You want the lowdb feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and lowdb fits your workflow better
About Prometheus
Prometheus is an open source monitoring system and time series database, part of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation ecosystem. It collects metrics from configured targets at defined intervals, evaluates alerting rules, and visualizes results. Designed for reliability in dynamic environments, it operates without reliance on distributed storage, ensuring each server node functions independently.
read the full Prometheus overview →
About lowdb
lowdb is a small, MIT licensed embedded JSON database for JavaScript and TypeScript that persists data to a plain db.json file, aimed at Node.js, Electron, and browser projects that need local storage without running a database server.
read the full lowdb overview →
More in Infrastructure & Operations
Related comparisons
More Databases projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Databases field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Prometheus or lowdb more popular?
Prometheus has 66,133 GitHub stars and lowdb has 22,580. Prometheus has the larger community by that measure.
Are Prometheus and lowdb free?
Both are open source. Prometheus is licensed under Apache-2.0 and lowdb under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Prometheus and lowdb?
Prometheus is written in Go and lowdb in JavaScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Prometheus or lowdb?
Choose Prometheus if you want the larger community (66,133 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose lowdb if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.