head to head · open source
Prometheus vs cassandra
Prometheus has 66,109 GitHub stars, 10,839 forks, 890 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. cassandra has 10,096 stars, 4,118 forks, 529 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Prometheus leads on adoption by 555% (66,109 vs 10,096 stars). Prometheus is written in Go under Apache-2.0; cassandra is written in Java under Apache-2.0. Prometheus has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, cassandra 41%. cassandra 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 | cassandra | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 66K | ★ 10K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 11K | ⑂ 4.1K |
| 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 cassandra if
- You want the cassandra 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 cassandra 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 cassandra
Apache Cassandra is an open source transactional distributed database written in Java and licensed under Apache 2.0, for users who need linear scalability and proven fault tolerance on commodity hardware or cloud infrastructure without compromising performance.
read the full cassandra overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Prometheus or cassandra more popular?
Prometheus has 66,109 GitHub stars and cassandra has 10,096. Prometheus has the larger community by that measure.
Are Prometheus and cassandra free?
Both are open source. Prometheus is licensed under Apache-2.0 and cassandra under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Prometheus and cassandra?
Prometheus is written in Go and cassandra 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 cassandra?
Choose Prometheus if you want the larger community (66,109 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose cassandra if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.