head to head · open source
Prometheus vs usql
Prometheus has 66,906 GitHub stars, 10,969 forks, 890 open issues and last shipped yesterday. usql has 10,161 stars, 409 forks, 63 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Prometheus leads on adoption by 558% (66,906 vs 10,161 stars). Prometheus is written in Go under Apache-2.0; usql is written in Go under MIT. Prometheus has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, usql 4%. 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 | usql | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 67K | ★ 10K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 11K | ⑂ 409 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Prometheus if
- You weight community size — 67K 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 usql if
- You want the usql feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and usql fits your workflow better
About Prometheus
Prometheus Visit prometheus.io for the full documentation, examples and guides. [ ][quay] [ ][hub] Prometheus, a Cloud Native Computing Foundation project, is a systems and service monitoring system. It collects metrics from configured targets at given intervals, evaluates rule expressions, displays the results, and can trigger alerts when specified conditions are observed. The features that distinguish Prometheus from other metrics and monitoring systems are: A multi dimensional data model (time series defined by metric name and set of key/value dimensions) PromQL, a powerful and flexible query language to…
read the full Prometheus overview →
About usql
Installing Building Database Support Using Features and Compatibility Releases Contributing usql is a universal command line interface for PostgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle Database, SQLite3, Microsoft SQL Server, [and many other databases][databases] including NoSQL and non relational databases! usql works with [SQL and NoSQL databases][databases] from a command line modelled on PostgreSQL's psql . usql supports most of the core psql features, such as [variables][variables], [backticks][backticks], [backslash commands][commands] and has additional features that psql does not, such as [multiple database…
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Frequently asked questions
Is Prometheus or usql more popular?
Prometheus has 66,906 GitHub stars and usql has 10,161. Prometheus has the larger community by that measure.
Are Prometheus and usql free?
Both are open source. Prometheus is licensed under Apache-2.0 and usql under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Prometheus and usql?
Prometheus is written in Go and usql 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 usql?
Choose Prometheus if you want the larger community (66,906 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose usql if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.