head to head · open source
Prometheus vs dbtpl
Prometheus has 66,109 GitHub stars, 10,839 forks, 890 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. dbtpl has 3,895 stars, 337 forks, 70 open issues and last shipped 11 days ago. Prometheus leads on adoption by 1,597% (66,109 vs 3,895 stars). Prometheus is written in Go under Apache-2.0; dbtpl is written in Go under MIT. Prometheus has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, dbtpl 9%. 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 | dbtpl | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 66K | ★ 3.9K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-08 |
| Forks | ⑂ 11K | ⑂ 337 |
| 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 dbtpl if
- You want the dbtpl feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and dbtpl 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 dbtpl
dbtpl is an MIT licensed command line tool that inspects a SQL database schema or a custom SQL query and generates idiomatic Go code from the results, built for Go developers who want typed models and query code without hand writing the repetitive parts.
read the full dbtpl overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Prometheus or dbtpl more popular?
Prometheus has 66,109 GitHub stars and dbtpl has 3,895. Prometheus has the larger community by that measure.
Are Prometheus and dbtpl free?
Both are open source. Prometheus is licensed under Apache-2.0 and dbtpl under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Prometheus and dbtpl?
Prometheus is written in Go and dbtpl in Go. 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 dbtpl?
Choose Prometheus if you want the larger community (66,109 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose dbtpl if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.