head to head · open source
Prometheus vs orbitdb
Prometheus has 66,109 GitHub stars, 10,839 forks, 890 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. orbitdb has 8,808 stars, 595 forks, 25 open issues and last shipped 4 months ago. Prometheus leads on adoption by 651% (66,109 vs 8,808 stars). Prometheus is written in Go under Apache-2.0; orbitdb is written in JavaScript under MIT. Prometheus has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, orbitdb 7%. 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 | orbitdb | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 66K | ★ 8.8K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-05-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 11K | ⑂ 595 |
| 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 orbitdb if
- You want the orbitdb feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and orbitdb 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 orbitdb
OrbitDB is a serverless, distributed, peer to peer database for the decentralized web that stores its data in IPFS and syncs it with peers over Libp2p Pubsub, and it is aimed at developers building decentralized, blockchain, and local first applications in JavaScript.
read the full orbitdb overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Prometheus or orbitdb more popular?
Prometheus has 66,109 GitHub stars and orbitdb has 8,808. Prometheus has the larger community by that measure.
Are Prometheus and orbitdb free?
Both are open source. Prometheus is licensed under Apache-2.0 and orbitdb under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Prometheus and orbitdb?
Prometheus is written in Go and orbitdb in JavaScript. 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 orbitdb?
Choose Prometheus if you want the larger community (66,109 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose orbitdb if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.