# Grafana vs Thanos

**Leader by vioscaleAI score:** Thanos

| Attribute | Grafana | Thanos |
|---|---|---|
| **vioscaleAI score** | 54.3 (75% (high)) | 59.4 (52% (medium)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 100 | 52 |
| adoption.dependent_repos | 1,048 | 1,266 |
| adoption.github_stars | 77,082 | 14,234 |
| adoption.package_downloads_weekly | 0 | - |
| adoption.stackoverflow_questions | 14,000 | - |
| content.faq | `[{"answer":"A cloud-based observability platform that unifies metrics, logs, traces, and dashboards for monitoring applications, infrastructure, and AI systems. Built on open standards like OpenTelemetry, it includes cost optimization tools, alerting, and incident response features. It is indexed under Observability Tools.","source":"https://grafana.com","question":"What is Grafana?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Grafana is open source, so it can be self-hosted and used at no licence cost. It is released under the AGPL-3.0 licence. A commercial or hosted edition starts at $0.05. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://grafana.com","question":"Is Grafana free to use?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Grafana supports the web, iOS, Android and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://grafana.com","question":"What platforms does Grafana support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have only confirmed a cloud / SaaS deployment for Grafana, so it appears to be vendor-hosted. If a self-hosted option exists we have not found it documented publicly.","source":"https://grafana.com","question":"Can Grafana be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 9 integrations for Grafana, including Prometheus, Loki, Elasticsearch, InfluxDB, Postgres, Kubernetes, AWS and Tempo, plus 1 more. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://grafana.com","question":"What does Grafana integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have independently confirmed SOC 2, ISO 27001 and GDPR for Grafana. Certifications we do not list are ones we have not been able to verify from public sources, which is not the same as Grafana not holding them. Always confirm compliance directly before you rely on it.","source":"https://trust.grafana.com","question":"What security certifications does Grafana have?","confidence":0.7},{"answer":"Yes. Grafana is published under the AGPL-3.0 licence, a copyleft licence, so check its terms before embedding it in a closed-source product. Licence terms can change between releases, so verify against the repository for the version you intend to use.","source":"https://github.com/grafana/grafana","question":"Is Grafana open source?","confidence":0.99},{"answer":"Grafana is available worldwide. Its primary market is the United States.","source":"https://grafana.com","question":"Where is Grafana available?","confidence":0.5}]` | `[{"answer":"CNCF Incubating project extending Prometheus with global query view across multiple servers, unlimited retention via object storage, and downsampling capabilities. It is indexed under Observability Tools.","source":"https://thanos.io","question":"What is Thanos?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Thanos is open source, so it can be self-hosted and used at no licence cost. It is released under the Apache-2.0 licence. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://thanos.io","question":"Is Thanos free to use?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Thanos supports the web and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://thanos.io","question":"What platforms does Thanos support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Thanos can be deployed self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://thanos.io","question":"Can Thanos be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 8 integrations for Thanos, including Prometheus, Grafana, OpenTSDB, S3, GCP, Azure, Swift and Tencent COS. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://thanos.io","question":"What does Thanos integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Thanos is published under the Apache-2.0 licence, a permissive licence that generally allows commercial use and modification. Licence terms can change between releases, so verify against the repository for the version you intend to use.","source":"https://github.com/thanos-io/thanos","question":"Is Thanos open source?","confidence":0.95}]` |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true,"self_hosted":true}` | `{"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | A comprehensive observability solution that integrates metrics, logs, and traces from multiple sources using OpenTelemetry-native standards, providing dashboards, alerting, and incident management capabilities for teams of any size. | CNCF Incubating project extending Prometheus with global query view across multiple servers, unlimited retention via object storage, and downsampling capabilities. |
| features.capabilities | `{"apm":true,"rum":true,"logs":true,"hosting":"both","metrics":true,"on_call":true,"tracing":true,"alerting":true,"dashboards":true,"otel_native":true}` | `{"apm":false,"logs":false,"hosting":"self","metrics":true,"tracing":true,"alerting":true,"dashboards":true,"otel_native":true}` |
| integrations.count | 6 | 8 |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"Prometheus"},{"name":"Loki"},{"name":"Elasticsearch"},{"name":"InfluxDB"},{"name":"Postgres"},{"name":"Kubernetes"},{"name":"AWS"},{"name":"Tempo"},{"name":"OpenTelemetry"},{"name":"Azure Monitor","category":"monitoring","direction":"inbound"}]` | `[{"name":"Prometheus"},{"name":"Grafana"},{"name":"OpenTSDB"},{"name":"S3"},{"name":"GCP"},{"name":"Azure"},{"name":"Swift"},{"name":"Tencent COS"},{"name":"Alertmanager","native":true,"category":"alerting"}]` |
| language.primary | TypeScript | Go |
| license.spdx | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| market.availability | `{"primaryMarkets":["US"],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` | - |
| platform.support | `{"web":true}` | `{"cli":true,"web":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"hybrid","plans":[{"free":true,"name":"Free","summary":"Always free, no credit card required","features":["All Grafana Cloud services with limited usage","Community support","14 days retention for metrics, logs, traces, profiles, and k6 performance tests"],"components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":0,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}],"description":"Always free tier with access to all Grafana Cloud services at limited usage.","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"logs_ingested":"50 GB/month","retention_logs":"14 days","retention_metrics":"14 days","metrics_active_series":"10k/month"}},{"free":false,"name":"Pro","summary":"From $19/month + usage with automatic volume discounts","features":["Everything in Free plan","Pay as you go above free tier with volume discounts","8×5 email support","13 months retention for metrics; 30 days retention for logs, traces, profiles, k6 performance tests","Adaptive Logs and Metrics cost optimization"],"commitment":"monthly","components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":19,"period":"month","currency":"USD"},{"per":{"qty":1000,"unit":"series"},"kind":"metered","amount":6.5,"currency":"USD"},{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"GB"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.05,"currency":"USD"}],"description":"Self-serve plan with pay-as-you-go usage billing and volume discounts.","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"logs_ingested":"50 GB/month","retention_logs":"30 days","retention_metrics":"13 months","metrics_active_series":"10k/month"}},{"free":false,"name":"Enterprise","summary":"Starts at $25,000/year spend commit. Custom pricing and deployment options.","features":["Premium support","Custom retention policies","Deployment flexibility (Public Cloud, Federal Cloud, or Bring Your Own Cloud)","As low as $3 per 1k series for metrics at scale","Custom pricing based on annual commit and volume"],"commitment":"annual","components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":25000,"period":"year","currency":"USD"}],"description":"Full-service offering with custom terms, premium support, and deployment flexibility.","contactSales":true}],"summary":"Free forever tier always available. Pro plans from $19/month + usage with volume discounts. Enterprise from $25,000/year with custom terms.","currency":"USD","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://grafana.com","retrievedAt":"2026-08-05T13:24:07.448Z","startingPrice":{"amount":0.05,"period":"month","currency":"USD"},"billingPeriods":["month","year"]}` | `{"type":"open_source","sourceUrl":"https://thanos.io","retrievedAt":"2026-08-13T17:01:37.783Z"}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | freemium | open_source |
| pricing.price_level | low | free |
| pricing.transparent | no | - |
| release.cadence_days | - | 6 |
| release.history | `[{"url":"https://github.com/grafana/grafana/releases/tag/v13.2.3","date":"2026-09-29T09:02:18Z","type":"stable","version":"v13.2.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/grafana/grafana/releases/tag/v13.1.7","date":"2026-09-29T08:57:58Z","type":"stable","version":"v13.1.7"},{"url":"https://github.com/grafana/grafana/releases/tag/v13.0.10","date":"2026-09-29T08:54:36Z","type":"stable","version":"v13.0.10"},{"url":"https://github.com/grafana/grafana/releases/tag/v12.4.12","date":"2026-09-29T08:45:03Z","type":"stable","version":"v12.4.12"},{"url":"https://github.com/grafana/grafana/releases/tag/v13.2.2","date":"2026-09-15T12:21:32Z","type":"stable","version":"v13.2.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/grafana/grafana/releases/tag/v13.1.6","date":"2026-09-15T12:25:01Z","type":"stable","version":"v13.1.6"},{"url":"https://github.com/grafana/grafana/releases/tag/v13.0.9","date":"2026-09-15T12:43:46Z","type":"stable","version":"v13.0.9"},{"url":"https://github.com/grafana/grafana/releases/tag/v12.4.11","date":"2026-09-15T12:27:34Z","type":"stable","version":"v12.4.11"},{"url":"https://github.com/grafana/grafana/releases/tag/v13.2.1","date":"2026-09-02T07:00:31Z","type":"stable","version":"v13.2.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/grafana/grafana/releases/tag/v13.1.5","date":"2026-09-02T08:12:48Z","type":"stable","version":"v13.1.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/grafana/grafana/releases/tag/v13.0.8","date":"2026-09-02T08:23:04Z","type":"stable","version":"v13.0.8"},{"url":"https://github.com/grafana/grafana/releases/tag/v12.4.10","date":"2026-09-02T08:58:25Z","type":"stable","version":"v12.4.10"},{"url":"https://github.com/grafana/grafana/releases/tag/v13.2.0","date":"2026-08-18T12:48:13Z","type":"stable","version":"v13.2.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/grafana/grafana/releases/tag/v13.1.4","date":"2026-08-18T13:02:28Z","type":"stable","version":"v13.1.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/grafana/grafana/releases/tag/v13.0.7","date":"2026-08-18T14:08:57Z","type":"stable","version":"v13.0.7"},{"url":"https://github.com/grafana/grafana/releases/tag/v12.4.9","date":"2026-08-18T14:08:48Z","type":"stable","version":"v12.4.9"},{"url":"https://github.com/grafana/grafana/releases/tag/v12.3.11","date":"2026-08-18T13:20:15Z","type":"stable","version":"v12.3.11"},{"url":"https://github.com/grafana/grafana/releases/tag/v13.1.3","date":"2026-08-07T03:03:34Z","type":"stable","version":"v13.1.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/grafana/grafana/releases/tag/v13.0.6","date":"2026-08-07T03:06:00Z","type":"stable","version":"v13.0.6"},{"url":"https://github.com/grafana/grafana/releases/tag/v12.4.8","date":"2026-08-07T02:55:02Z","type":"stable","version":"v12.4.8"}]` | `[{"url":"https://github.com/thanos-io/thanos/releases/tag/v0.42.4","date":"2026-07-30T14:33:20Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.42.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/thanos-io/thanos/releases/tag/v0.42.3","date":"2026-07-29T10:49:11Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.42.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/thanos-io/thanos/releases/tag/v0.42.2","date":"2026-07-17T06:51:06Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.42.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/thanos-io/thanos/releases/tag/v0.42.1","date":"2026-07-16T19:45:28Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.42.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/thanos-io/thanos/releases/tag/v0.42.0","date":"2026-07-08T14:44:35Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.42.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/thanos-io/thanos/releases/tag/v0.42.0-rc.2","date":"2026-06-30T13:06:27Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v0.42.0-rc.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/thanos-io/thanos/releases/tag/v0.42.0-rc.1","date":"2026-06-25T07:16:42Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v0.42.0-rc.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/thanos-io/thanos/releases/tag/v0.41.0","date":"2026-02-12T10:32:11Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.41.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/thanos-io/thanos/releases/tag/v0.41.0-rc.1","date":"2026-02-11T10:41:41Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v0.41.0-rc.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/thanos-io/thanos/releases/tag/v0.41.0-rc.0","date":"2026-02-09T14:03:57Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v0.41.0-rc.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/thanos-io/thanos/releases/tag/v0.40.1","date":"2025-10-28T18:13:01Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.40.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/thanos-io/thanos/releases/tag/v0.40.0","date":"2025-10-27T11:24:31Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.40.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/thanos-io/thanos/releases/tag/v0.40.0-rc.0","date":"2025-10-21T13:02:52Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v0.40.0-rc.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/thanos-io/thanos/releases/tag/v0.39.2","date":"2025-07-21T06:51:58Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.39.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/thanos-io/thanos/releases/tag/v0.39.1","date":"2025-07-01T13:03:18Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.39.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/thanos-io/thanos/releases/tag/v0.39.0","date":"2025-06-25T11:54:06Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.39.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/thanos-io/thanos/releases/tag/v0.39.0-rc.0","date":"2025-06-20T04:45:58Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v0.39.0-rc.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/thanos-io/thanos/releases/tag/v0.38.0","date":"2025-04-03T12:14:15Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.38.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/thanos-io/thanos/releases/tag/v0.38.0-rc.1","date":"2025-04-01T07:07:33Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v0.38.0-rc.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/thanos-io/thanos/releases/tag/v0.38.0-rc.0","date":"2025-03-25T14:05:25Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v0.38.0-rc.0"}]` |
| reliability.status_page | yes | - |
| security.certifications | `[{"name":"FEDRAMP","status":"active"},{"name":"NATSEC100","status":"active"},{"name":"PCI DSS","status":"active"},{"name":"A-LIGN","status":"active"}]` | - |
| security.disclosure_policy | yes | - |
| security.fedramp | yes | - |
| security.gdpr | yes | - |
| security.iso27001 | yes | - |
| security.pci | yes | - |
| security.scorecard | 6.8 | 8.3 |
| security.soc2 | yes | - |
| security.trust_center | https://grafana.com/security/hall-of-fame/issue_35/ | - |
| security.vulnerabilities | `{"count":1,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=npm&package_name=%40grafana%2Fdata&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":"MODERATE"}` | `{"count":0,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=go&package_name=github.com%2Fthanos-io%2Fthanos&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":null}` |

## Capabilities (Observability Tools)

| Capability | Grafana | Thanos |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Signals** |  |  |
| Metrics | ✓ | ✓ |
| Log management | ✓ | ✗ |
| Distributed tracing | ✓ | ✓ |
| Application performance monitoring | ✓ | ✗ |
| Real-user monitoring | ✓ | - |
| **Response** |  |  |
| Alerting | ✓ | ✓ |
| On-call / incident management | ✓ | - |
| **Insight** |  |  |
| Dashboards | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Standards** |  |  |
| OpenTelemetry-native | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Deployment** |  |  |
| Hosting | Cloud + self-hosted | Self-hosted only |

*Source: vioscaleAI. Generated 2026-10-16T19:05:05.185Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*