head to head · open source
Prometheus vs GreptimeDB
Prometheus has 66,106 GitHub stars, 10,840 forks, 890 open issues and last shipped yesterday. GreptimeDB has 6,680 stars, 543 forks, 264 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Prometheus leads on adoption by 890% (66,106 vs 6,680 stars). Prometheus is written in Go under Apache-2.0; GreptimeDB is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. Prometheus has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, GreptimeDB 8%. GreptimeDB was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (metrics, prometheus), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
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 | GreptimeDB | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 66K | ★ 6.7K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 11K | ⑂ 543 |
| 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 GreptimeDB if
- You want the GreptimeDB feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and GreptimeDB 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 GreptimeDB
GreptimeDB is an open source observability database built on a single columnar engine that stores metrics, logs, and traces together. It lives in the cloud native infrastructure and operations ecosystem, written in Rust and licensed under Apache 2.0. All three signal types share one table model composed of tags, a timestamp, and fields, so when signals carry common identifiers such as service, host, or trace ID, they can be correlated in SQL without moving data between separate databases. Compute and storage are disaggregated: object storage holds the data while memory and local disk caches keep recent and freque…
read the full GreptimeDB overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Prometheus or GreptimeDB more popular?
Prometheus has 66,106 GitHub stars and GreptimeDB has 6,680. Prometheus has the larger community by that measure.
Are Prometheus and GreptimeDB free?
Both are open source. Prometheus is licensed under Apache-2.0 and GreptimeDB under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Prometheus and GreptimeDB?
Prometheus is written in Go and GreptimeDB 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 GreptimeDB?
Choose Prometheus if you want the larger community (66,106 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose GreptimeDB if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.