head to head · open source
Prometheus vs age
Prometheus has 66,106 GitHub stars, 10,840 forks, 890 open issues and last shipped yesterday. age has 4,826 stars, 523 forks, 249 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. Prometheus leads on adoption by 1,270% (66,106 vs 4,826 stars). Prometheus is written in Go under Apache-2.0; age is written in C under Apache-2.0. Prometheus has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, age 11%. 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 | age | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 66K | ★ 4.8K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | C |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 11K | ⑂ 523 |
| 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 age if
- You want the age feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You evaluated both and age 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 age
Apache AGE is an extension for PostgreSQL that adds a graph database to an existing relational database. AGE stands for A Graph Extension, and the project is inspired by Bitnine's AgensGraph, a multi model database fork of PostgreSQL. It lives in the PostgreSQL ecosystem and is written in C under the Apache 2.0 license. The core principle is a single storage layer that handles both the relational and the graph data model, so users can write standard ANSI SQL alongside openCypher, one of the most widely used graph query languages.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Prometheus or age more popular?
Prometheus has 66,106 GitHub stars and age has 4,826. Prometheus has the larger community by that measure.
Are Prometheus and age free?
Both are open source. Prometheus is licensed under Apache-2.0 and age under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Prometheus and age?
Prometheus is written in Go and age in C. 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 age?
Choose Prometheus if you want the larger community (66,106 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose age if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.