head to head · open source
Prometheus vs neo4j
Prometheus has 66,106 GitHub stars, 10,840 forks, 890 open issues and last shipped yesterday. neo4j has 17,241 stars, 2,703 forks, 252 open issues and last shipped 8 days ago. Prometheus leads on adoption by 283% (66,106 vs 17,241 stars). Prometheus is written in Go under Apache-2.0; neo4j is written in Java under GPL-3.0. Prometheus has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, neo4j 16%. 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.
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Side by side
| Prometheus | neo4j | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 66K | ★ 17K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-10 |
| Forks | ⑂ 11K | ⑂ 2.7K |
| 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 neo4j if
- You want the neo4j feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and neo4j 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 neo4j
Neo4j is a Java graph database released under GPL 3.0 that stores data as nodes and relationships and queries it with Cypher, aimed at developers, data engineers, and platform teams building connected data applications who would otherwise model those relationships as tables and joins.
read the full neo4j overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Prometheus or neo4j more popular?
Prometheus has 66,106 GitHub stars and neo4j has 17,241. Prometheus has the larger community by that measure.
Are Prometheus and neo4j free?
Both are open source. Prometheus is licensed under Apache-2.0 and neo4j under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Prometheus and neo4j?
Prometheus is written in Go and neo4j in Java. 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 neo4j?
Choose Prometheus if you want the larger community (66,106 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose neo4j if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.