head to head · open source
Prometheus vs Databend
Prometheus has 66,106 GitHub stars, 10,840 forks, 890 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Databend has 9,443 stars, 897 forks, 565 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Prometheus leads on adoption by 600% (66,106 vs 9,443 stars). Prometheus is written in Go under Apache-2.0; Databend is written in Rust under a custom or non-standard licence. Prometheus has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, Databend 9%. Databend 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 8884 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Prometheus | Databend | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 66K | ★ 9.4K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | Go | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 11K | ⑂ 897 |
| 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 Databend if
- You want the Databend feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and Databend 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 Databend
Databend open source cloud native data warehouse built in Rust. It targets enterprise AI workloads, SQL analytics, vector search, full text search, Python UDF sandbox, lakehouse workloads on S3, Azure, GCS. Project lives in database and infrastructure ecosystem, with topics covering OLAP, bigdata, serverless, geospatial, Elasticsearch, Snowflake.
read the full Databend 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 Databend more popular?
Prometheus has 66,106 GitHub stars and Databend has 9,443. Prometheus has the larger community by that measure.
Are Prometheus and Databend free?
Both are open source. Prometheus is licensed under Apache-2.0, and Databend has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Prometheus and Databend?
Prometheus is written in Go and Databend in Rust. 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 Databend?
Choose Prometheus if you want the larger community (66,106 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Databend if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.