Comparison

Prometheus vs QuestDB

On the evidence we track, Prometheus leads this comparison with a composite score of 67/100. Scores are only directly comparable because these tools share a category; the full breakdown and every source is below.

Prometheus full profile →QuestDB full profile →

Machine formatsMarkdownJSONGraphQLMarkdown is open. JSON and GraphQL need a free key.

★Prometheus67

QuestDB50

Attribute comparison across 2 tools
Attribute	PrometheusLeader	QuestDB
vioscaleAI score	67 / 100medium · 57%	50 / 100medium · 70%
Pricing
Free tierpricing.free_tier	✓	✓
Modelpricing.model	open_source	freemium
Price levelpricing.price_level	free	low
Transparentpricing.transparent	✓	✗
Integrations
Countintegrations.count	60	7
Security
Disclosure policysecurity.disclosure_policy	✓	-
Gdprsecurity.gdpr	✓	✓
Scorecardsecurity.scorecard	8.1	4.4
Soc2security.soc2	-	✓
Trust centersecurity.trust_center	https://prometheus.io/docs/operating/security/	-
Vulnerabilitiessecurity.vulnerabilities	Count: 7 · Source: https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=go&package_name=github.com%2Fprometheus%2Fprometheus&per_page=100 · Last 12m: 4 · Max severity: HIGH	Count: 0 · Source: https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=maven&package_name=org.questdb%3Aquestdb&per_page=100 · Last 12m: 0
Reliability
Sla pctreliability.sla_pct	-	99.9
Adoption
Dependent reposadoption.dependent_repos	5,467	106
Github starsadoption.github_stars	66,366	17,444
Package downloads weeklyadoption.package_downloads_weekly	11,748,542	-
Activity
Commits last 30dactivity.commits_last_30d	100	38
Release
Cadence daysrelease.cadence_days	7	16
Historyrelease.history	20 items	20 items
License
Spdxlicense.spdx	Apache-2.0	Apache-2.0
Language
Primarylanguage.primary	Go	Java
Market
Availabilitymarket.availability	Available worldwide	Available worldwide · Popular in GB, US · HQ GB
Content
Faqcontent.faq	7 items	8 items

Score

vioscaleAI score

Prometheus67 / 100medium · 57%

QuestDB50 / 100medium · 70%

Pricing

Free tier

Prometheus✓

QuestDB✓

Model

Prometheusopen_source

QuestDBfreemium

Price level

Prometheusfree

QuestDBlow

Transparent

Prometheus✓

QuestDB✗

Integrations

Count

Prometheus60

QuestDB7

Security

Disclosure policy

Prometheus✓

QuestDB–

Gdpr

Prometheus✓

QuestDB✓

Scorecard

Prometheus8.1

QuestDB4.4

Soc2

Prometheus–

QuestDB✓

Trust center

Prometheushttps://prometheus.io/docs/operating/security/

QuestDB–

Vulnerabilities

PrometheusCount: 7 · Source: https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=go&package_name=github.com%2Fprometheus%2Fprometheus&per_page=100 · Last 12m: 4 · Max severity: HIGH

QuestDBCount: 0 · Source: https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=maven&package_name=org.questdb%3Aquestdb&per_page=100 · Last 12m: 0

Reliability

Sla pct

Prometheus–

QuestDB99.9

Adoption

Dependent repos

Prometheus5,467

QuestDB106

Github stars

Prometheus66,366

QuestDB17,444

Package downloads weekly

Prometheus11,748,542

QuestDB–

Activity

Commits last 30d

Prometheus100

QuestDB38

Release

Cadence days

Prometheus7

QuestDB16

History

Prometheus20 items

QuestDB20 items

License

Spdx

PrometheusApache-2.0

QuestDBApache-2.0

Language

Primary

PrometheusGo

QuestDBJava

Market

Availability

PrometheusAvailable worldwide

QuestDBAvailable worldwide · Popular in GB, US · HQ GB

Content

Faq

Prometheus7 items

QuestDB8 items

Capabilities

Feature-by-feature on the axes that matter for time-series databases. “-” means undocumented, not absent.

Capability comparison for Time-Series Databases
Capability	Prometheus	QuestDB
Query
Query language (SQL / PromQL / InfluxQL-Flux / Graphite)	PromQL	SQL with time-series extensions (SAMPLE BY, ASOF, HORIZON JOIN, N-dimensional ar
SQL compatibility	Non-SQL	Full SQL
Ingest
Ingest model	Both	Push
Model
Data model	Metrics (labels/tags)	Wide events
Lifecycle
Downsampling / rollups	-	Continuous aggregates
Retention / TTL	-	Automatic
Storage
Compression (columnar / delta / Gorilla)	XOR2 float chunk encoding	columnar with frame compression
Performance
High-cardinality handling	Strong	Strong
Scale
Clustering / horizontal scale	Distributed / sharded	Distributed / sharded
Replication / HA	✓	✓
Deployment
Deployment	Self-hosted	Self-hosted
Interop
Prometheus remote-write compatible	✓	-
Licensing
Licence class	Permissive OSS	Permissive OSS

Query

Query language (SQL / PromQL / InfluxQL-Flux / Graphite)

PrometheusPromQL

QuestDBSQL with time-series extensions (SAMPLE BY, ASOF, HORIZON JOIN, N-dimensional ar

SQL compatibility

PrometheusNon-SQL

QuestDBFull SQL

Ingest

Ingest model

PrometheusBoth

QuestDBPush

Model

Data model

PrometheusMetrics (labels/tags)

QuestDBWide events

Lifecycle

Downsampling / rollups

Prometheus-

QuestDBContinuous aggregates

Retention / TTL

Prometheus-

QuestDBAutomatic

Storage

Compression (columnar / delta / Gorilla)

PrometheusXOR2 float chunk encoding

QuestDBcolumnar with frame compression

Performance

High-cardinality handling

PrometheusStrong

QuestDBStrong

Scale

Clustering / horizontal scale

PrometheusDistributed / sharded

QuestDBDistributed / sharded

Replication / HA

Prometheus✓

QuestDB✓

Deployment

PrometheusSelf-hosted

QuestDBSelf-hosted

Interop

Prometheus remote-write compatible

Prometheus✓

QuestDB-

Licensing

Licence class

PrometheusPermissive OSS

QuestDBPermissive OSS

What each one is

The product in its own terms, so the numbers below have context.

Prometheus

Leader

A pull-based monitoring platform that periodically scrapes metrics from instrumented targets over HTTP and stores them in a time-series database. It provides PromQL for querying metrics and integrates with Alertmanager for rule-based alerting and incident notifications.

Independently observed

QuestDB

A specialized database engineered to ingest high-volume time-series data at speed, execute queries with minimal latency, and maintain queryable history across tiered storage layers—combining standard SQL with open file formats for portability.

Independently observed

Pricing

List pricing as published by each vendor, with the date we read it. Always verify at the source before you buy.

Prometheus

Leader

Open sourceFree tier

as of 2026-08-14verify ↗

QuestDB

HybridFree tier

Open-source Apache 2.0 free tier; QuestDB Cloud and Enterprise plans available via contact/quote

as of 2026-08-14verify ↗

Platform & deployment

Where each product runs and how it can be hosted. A dash means undocumented, not unsupported.

Platform and deployment support comparison
Supports	Prometheus	QuestDB
WebPlatforms	✓	✓
macOSPlatforms	✓	✓
WindowsPlatforms	✓	✓
LinuxPlatforms	✓	✓
CLIPlatforms	✓	✓
Cloud / SaaSDeployment	✗	✓
Self-hostedDeployment	✓	✓
On-premiseDeployment	✓	✗
HybridDeployment	✗	✓

Platforms

Web

Prometheus✓

QuestDB✓

macOS

Prometheus✓

QuestDB✓

Windows

Prometheus✓

QuestDB✓

Linux

Prometheus✓

QuestDB✓

CLI

Prometheus✓

QuestDB✓

Deployment

Cloud / SaaS

Prometheus✗

QuestDB✓

Self-hosted

Prometheus✓

QuestDB✓

On-premise

Prometheus✓

QuestDB✗

Hybrid

Prometheus✗

QuestDB✓

Integrations

What each product connects to. Counts come from the vendor's own integration directory where one exists.

In common (2)

MySQL
Kafka

Prometheus

Leader

65 total - 63 not shared

Amazon SNS
Discord
incident.io
Jira
Mattermost
Microsoft Teams
OpsGenie
PagerDuty
Pushover
Rocket.Chat
Slack
Telegram
VictorOps
Webex
WeChat
Webhook
Email
WeChat Work
Blackbox Exporter
Consul
Graphite
Memcached
Node Exporter
StatsD
+39 more

Independently observed

QuestDB

19 total - 17 not shared

PostgreSQL
Parquet
Arrow
Polars
Pandas
Debezium
Iceberg
MongoDB
Cassandra
Apache Parquet
Apache Arrow
Claude Code
REST API
Apache Iceberg
Databricks
AWS
Azure

Independently observed

Still deciding?

Prometheus or QuestDB: which one depends on you

A composite score cannot know your constraints. Describe them and both get re-weighted against what you actually need, with the evidence behind every position.

Free to run, no account needed to start. How the evaluation works

Comparison generated from independently-sourced facts. Every value links to its source and retrieval date. See the method.