head to head · open source
Prometheus vs VictoriaMetrics
Prometheus has 66,106 GitHub stars, 10,840 forks, 890 open issues and last shipped yesterday. VictoriaMetrics has 17,731 stars, 1,743 forks, 800 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Prometheus leads on adoption by 273% (66,106 vs 17,731 stars). Prometheus is written in Go under Apache-2.0; VictoriaMetrics is written in Go under Apache-2.0. Prometheus has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, VictoriaMetrics 10%. VictoriaMetrics was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (metrics, monitoring, 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 | VictoriaMetrics | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 66K | ★ 18K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 11K | ⑂ 1.7K |
| 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 VictoriaMetrics if
- You want the VictoriaMetrics feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and VictoriaMetrics 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 VictoriaMetrics
VictoriaMetrics is time series database for metrics and logs. It is monitoring solution and database, written in Go, licensed under Apache 2.0. Category is Infrastructure & Operations / Databases. GitHub metadata lists 17714 stars and 1738 forks. Homepage is victoriametrics.com. It lives in infrastructure and operations ecosystem. Topic list includes Prometheus, Grafana, Kubernetes, OpenTelemetry, OTLP, Graphite, InfluxDB, OpenTSDB, metrics, monitoring, observability.
read the full VictoriaMetrics overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Prometheus or VictoriaMetrics more popular?
Prometheus has 66,106 GitHub stars and VictoriaMetrics has 17,731. Prometheus has the larger community by that measure.
Are Prometheus and VictoriaMetrics free?
Both are open source. Prometheus is licensed under Apache-2.0 and VictoriaMetrics under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Prometheus and VictoriaMetrics?
Prometheus is written in Go and VictoriaMetrics 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 VictoriaMetrics?
Choose Prometheus if you want the larger community (66,106 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose VictoriaMetrics if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.