head to head · open source
Prometheus vs Apache Druid
Prometheus has 66,906 GitHub stars, 10,969 forks, 890 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Apache Druid has 14,093 stars, 3,813 forks, 784 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Prometheus leads on adoption by 375% (66,906 vs 14,093 stars). Prometheus is written in Go under Apache-2.0; Apache Druid is written in Java under Apache-2.0. Prometheus has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, Apache Druid 27%. 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 | Apache Druid | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 67K | ★ 14K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Java |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 11K | ⑂ 3.8K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Prometheus if
- You weight community size — 67K 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 Apache Druid if
- You want the Apache Druid feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and Apache Druid fits your workflow better
About Prometheus
Prometheus Visit prometheus.io for the full documentation, examples and guides. [ ][quay] [ ][hub] Prometheus, a Cloud Native Computing Foundation project, is a systems and service monitoring system. It collects metrics from configured targets at given intervals, evaluates rule expressions, displays the results, and can trigger alerts when specified conditions are observed. The features that distinguish Prometheus from other metrics and monitoring systems are: A multi dimensional data model (time series defined by metric name and set of key/value dimensions) PromQL, a powerful and flexible query language to…
read the full Prometheus overview →
About Apache Druid
Apache Druid Druid is a high performance real time analytics database. Druid's main value add is to reduce time to insight and action. Druid is designed for workflows where fast queries and ingest really matter. Druid excels at powering UIs, running operational (ad hoc) queries, or handling high concurrency. Consider Druid as an open source alternative to data warehouses for a variety of use cases. The design documentation explains the key concepts. Getting started You can get started with Druid with our local or Docker quickstart. For Kubernetes deployments, the druid operator is maintained in a separate…
read the full Apache Druid 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 Apache Druid more popular?
Prometheus has 66,906 GitHub stars and Apache Druid has 14,093. Prometheus has the larger community by that measure.
Are Prometheus and Apache Druid free?
Both are open source. Prometheus is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Apache Druid under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Prometheus and Apache Druid?
Prometheus is written in Go and Apache Druid 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 Apache Druid?
Choose Prometheus if you want the larger community (66,906 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Apache Druid if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.