head to head · open source
Prometheus vs pgcli
Prometheus has 66,109 GitHub stars, 10,839 forks, 890 open issues and last shipped yesterday. pgcli has 13,392 stars, 613 forks, 45 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Prometheus leads on adoption by 394% (66,109 vs 13,392 stars). Prometheus is written in Go under Apache-2.0; pgcli is written in Python under BSD-3-Clause. Prometheus has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, pgcli 5%. 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 | pgcli | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 66K | ★ 13K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | BSD-3-Clause |
| Written in | Go | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 11K | ⑂ 613 |
| 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 pgcli if
- You want the pgcli feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and pgcli 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 pgcli
pgcli is a Python command line REPL for PostgreSQL, distributed under the BSD 3 Clause licence, that replaces psql for interactive sessions by adding autocompletion and syntax highlighting for developers, DBAs, and analysts who work in a terminal.
read the full pgcli overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Prometheus or pgcli more popular?
Prometheus has 66,109 GitHub stars and pgcli has 13,392. Prometheus has the larger community by that measure.
Are Prometheus and pgcli free?
Both are open source. Prometheus is licensed under Apache-2.0 and pgcli under BSD-3-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Prometheus and pgcli?
Prometheus is written in Go and pgcli in Python. 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 pgcli?
Choose Prometheus if you want the larger community (66,109 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose pgcli if its feature set, stack or BSD-3-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.