head to head · open source
Prometheus vs zookeeper
Prometheus has 66,109 GitHub stars, 10,839 forks, 890 open issues and last shipped yesterday. zookeeper has 12,806 stars, 7,319 forks, 242 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Prometheus leads on adoption by 416% (66,109 vs 12,806 stars). Prometheus is written in Go under Apache-2.0; zookeeper is written in Java under Apache-2.0. Prometheus has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, zookeeper 57%. zookeeper was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (hacktoberfest), 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 | zookeeper | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 66K | ★ 13K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 11K | ⑂ 7.3K |
| 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 zookeeper if
- You want the zookeeper feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and zookeeper 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 zookeeper
Apache ZooKeeper is an Apache 2.0 licensed Java coordination service, published from the apache/zookeeper repository, used by distributed systems to hold shared configuration, naming and synchronisation state.
read the full zookeeper overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Prometheus or zookeeper more popular?
Prometheus has 66,109 GitHub stars and zookeeper has 12,806. Prometheus has the larger community by that measure.
Are Prometheus and zookeeper free?
Both are open source. Prometheus is licensed under Apache-2.0 and zookeeper under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Prometheus and zookeeper?
Prometheus is written in Go and zookeeper in Java. 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 zookeeper?
Choose Prometheus if you want the larger community (66,109 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose zookeeper if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.