# Prometheus vs TimescaleDB

**Leader by vioscaleAI score:** Prometheus

| Attribute | Prometheus | TimescaleDB |
|---|---|---|
| **vioscaleAI score** | 66.8 (57% (medium)) | 56.8 (62% (medium)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 100 | 100 |
| adoption.dependent_repos | 5,467 | 0 |
| adoption.github_stars | 66,366 | 23,634 |
| adoption.package_downloads_weekly | 11,748,542 | - |
| content.faq | `[{"answer":"A systems monitoring platform that collects metrics from configured targets at regular intervals, evaluates alert rules using PromQL, and triggers notifications. It uses a dimensional data model with key-value labels for flexible metric analysis and dashboarding. It is indexed under Time-Series Databases.","source":"https://prometheus.io","question":"What is Prometheus?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Prometheus 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://prometheus.io","question":"Is Prometheus free to use?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Prometheus supports Windows, macOS, Linux and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://prometheus.io","question":"What platforms does Prometheus support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Prometheus can be deployed on-premise and self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://prometheus.io","question":"Can Prometheus be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 24 integrations for Prometheus, including Amazon SNS, Discord, incident.io, Jira, Mattermost, Microsoft Teams, OpsGenie and PagerDuty, plus 16 more. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://prometheus.io","question":"What does Prometheus integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have independently confirmed GDPR for Prometheus. Certifications we do not list are ones we have not been able to verify from public sources, which is not the same as Prometheus not holding them. Always confirm compliance directly before you rely on it.","source":"https://prometheus.io/docs/operating/security/","question":"What security certifications does Prometheus have?","confidence":0.7},{"answer":"Yes. Prometheus 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/prometheus/prometheus","question":"Is Prometheus open source?","confidence":0.99}]` | `[{"answer":"Built on PostgreSQL, this time-series database is optimized for ingesting high-volume sensor and operational data quickly, storing years of historical data cost-effectively, and querying both current and historical data together using standard SQL. It is indexed under Time-Series Databases.","source":"https://www.tigerdata.com/learn/understanding-rds-pricing-and-costs","question":"What is TimescaleDB?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"TimescaleDB does not publish its prices. Pricing is quoted on request, across 2 plans (Cloud Basic Support and Cloud Production Support), so the figure depends on your seat count and requirements. We record this as a pricing-transparency signal rather than guessing a number. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://www.tigerdata.com/learn/understanding-rds-pricing-and-costs","question":"How much does TimescaleDB cost?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"TimescaleDB supports the web and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://www.tigerdata.com/learn/understanding-rds-pricing-and-costs","question":"What platforms does TimescaleDB support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have only confirmed a cloud / SaaS deployment for TimescaleDB, so it appears to be vendor-hosted. If a self-hosted option exists we have not found it documented publicly.","source":"https://www.tigerdata.com/learn/understanding-rds-pricing-and-costs","question":"Can TimescaleDB be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 9 integrations for TimescaleDB, including Kafka, S3, Iceberg, AWS, Azure, Observability tools, Postgres ecosystem and Tableau, plus 1 more. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://www.tigerdata.com/learn/understanding-rds-pricing-and-costs","question":"What does TimescaleDB integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have independently confirmed SOC 2, HIPAA and GDPR for TimescaleDB. Certifications we do not list are ones we have not been able to verify from public sources, which is not the same as TimescaleDB not holding them. Always confirm compliance directly before you rely on it.","source":"https://www.tigerdata.com/security","question":"What security certifications does TimescaleDB have?","confidence":0.7},{"answer":"TimescaleDB is available worldwide. Its primary market is the United States.","source":"https://www.tigerdata.com/learn/understanding-rds-pricing-and-costs","question":"Where is TimescaleDB available?","confidence":0.5}]` |
| deployment.options | `{"on_prem":true,"self_hosted":true}` | `{"cloud":true,"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | 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. | A PostgreSQL-based time-series database optimized to efficiently ingest and store massive volumes of continuously-generated sensor and machine data, with automatic data partitioning, columnar storage compression, and tiered storage for cost-effective long-term retention. |
| features.capabilities | `{"clustering":"distributed","data_model":"metrics","deployment":"self_hosted","compression":"XOR2 float chunk encoding","ingest_model":"both","licence_class":"permissive_oss","query_language":"PromQL","replication_ha":true,"high_cardinality":"strong","sql_compatibility":"non_sql","prometheus_remote_write":true}` | `{"clustering":"distributed","data_model":"metrics","deployment":"embedded","compression":"Row-columnar with compression","downsampling":"continuous_aggregates","ingest_model":"both","licence_class":"permissive_oss","retention_ttl":"automatic","query_language":"SQL","replication_ha":true,"high_cardinality":"strong","sql_compatibility":"full_sql"}` |
| integrations.count | 60 | 3 |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"Amazon SNS"},{"name":"Discord"},{"name":"incident.io"},{"name":"Jira"},{"name":"Mattermost"},{"name":"Microsoft Teams"},{"name":"OpsGenie"},{"name":"PagerDuty"},{"name":"Pushover"},{"name":"Rocket.Chat"},{"name":"Slack"},{"name":"Telegram"},{"name":"VictorOps"},{"name":"Webex"},{"name":"WeChat"},{"name":"Webhook"},{"name":"Email"},{"name":"WeChat Work","native":true,"category":"chat","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"Blackbox Exporter","native":true,"category":"monitoring","direction":"inbound"},{"name":"Consul","native":true,"category":"service_discovery","direction":"inbound"},{"name":"Graphite","native":true,"category":"metrics_collection","direction":"inbound"},{"name":"Memcached","native":true,"category":"metrics_collection","direction":"inbound"},{"name":"MySQL","native":true,"category":"metrics_collection","direction":"inbound"},{"name":"Node Exporter","native":true,"category":"metrics_collection","direction":"inbound"},{"name":"StatsD","native":true,"category":"metrics_collection","direction":"inbound"},{"name":"Grafana Mimir","category":"monitoring"},{"name":"Thanos","category":"monitoring"},{"name":"VictoriaMetrics","category":"monitoring"},{"name":"Splunk","category":"monitoring"},{"name":"New Relic","category":"monitoring"},{"name":"Sysdig Monitor","category":"monitoring"},{"name":"SignalFx","category":"monitoring"},{"name":"Wavefront","category":"monitoring"},{"name":"Instana","category":"monitoring"},{"name":"InfluxDB","category":"database"},{"name":"Elasticsearch","category":"database"},{"name":"CrateDB","category":"database"},{"name":"M3DB","category":"database"},{"name":"GreptimeDB","category":"database"},{"name":"OpenTSDB","category":"database"},{"name":"Cortex","category":"storage"},{"name":"AWS Timestream","category":"cloud"},{"name":"Azure Data Explorer","category":"cloud"},{"name":"Google BigQuery","category":"cloud"},{"name":"Google Cloud Spanner","category":"cloud"},{"name":"AppOptics","category":"monitoring"},{"name":"Kafka","category":"messaging"},{"name":"Kubernetes","native":true,"category":"infrastructure"},{"name":"Ansible Tower","category":"automation"},{"name":"All Quiet","category":"incident_management"},{"name":"Rootly","category":"incident_management"},{"name":"Parny","category":"incident_management"},{"name":"Better Uptime","category":"incident_management"},{"name":"Asana","category":"collaboration"},{"name":"Notion","category":"collaboration"},{"name":"Matrix","category":"chat"},{"name":"Zulip","category":"chat"},{"name":"AWS SNS","category":"notifications"},{"name":"Phabricator","category":"project_management"},{"name":"NetBox","category":"infrastructure"},{"name":"Fastly","category":"cdn"},{"name":"NS1","category":"dns"},{"name":"ElastiCache","category":"cloud"},{"name":"OpenObserve","category":"monitoring"},{"name":"Mezmo","category":"logging"}]` | `[{"name":"Kafka"},{"name":"S3"},{"name":"Iceberg"},{"name":"AWS"},{"name":"Azure"},{"name":"Observability tools"},{"name":"Postgres ecosystem"},{"name":"Tableau","native":false,"category":"analytics"},{"name":"Power BI","native":false,"category":"analytics"}]` |
| language.primary | Go | C |
| license.spdx | Apache-2.0 | - |
| market.availability | `{"primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` | `{"primaryMarkets":["US"],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true,"mac":true,"web":true,"linux":true,"windows":true}` | `{"cli":true,"web":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"open_source","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://prometheus.io","retrievedAt":"2026-08-14T16:35:31.505Z"}` | `{"type":"usage","plans":[{"free":false,"name":"Performance","summary":"$30/month minimum compute; $0.177/GB-month storage","features":["4 database services","Up to 16 TB disk storage per service","Single-node high-availability replicas","Performance Insights","Basic support (business hours)"],"commitment":"monthly","components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":30,"period":"month","currency":"USD"},{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"gb"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.177,"currency":"USD"}],"contactSales":false},{"free":false,"name":"Scale","summary":"$36/month minimum compute; $0.212/GB-month storage","features":["Unlimited tiered storage","Multi-node high-availability replicas","Integrations with observability tools","SAML single-sign-on","HIPAA compliance"],"commitment":"monthly","components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":36,"period":"month","currency":"USD"},{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"gb"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.212,"currency":"USD"}],"contactSales":false}],"summary":"From $30/month minimum compute. Storage from $0.177–$0.212/GB-month. 30-day free trial.","currency":"USD","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://www.tigerdata.com/pricing","retrievedAt":"2026-10-02T16:22:02.553Z","freeTrialDays":30,"startingPrice":{"amount":30,"period":"month","currency":"USD"},"billingPeriods":["month"]}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | open_source | freemium |
| pricing.price_level | free | mid |
| pricing.starting_price | - | `{"amount":30,"currency":"USD"}` |
| pricing.transparent | yes | yes |
| release.cadence_days | 7 | 12 |
| release.history | `[{"url":"https://github.com/prometheus/prometheus/releases/tag/v3.13.4","date":"2026-10-02T14:46:21Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.13.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/prometheus/prometheus/releases/tag/v3.15.0","date":"2026-09-25T08:56:22Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.15.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/prometheus/prometheus/releases/tag/v3.15.0-rc.1","date":"2026-09-22T10:07:36Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v3.15.0-rc.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/prometheus/prometheus/releases/tag/v3.15.0-rc.0","date":"2026-09-14T19:17:49Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v3.15.0-rc.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/prometheus/prometheus/releases/tag/v3.13.3","date":"2026-09-07T14:18:03Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.13.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/prometheus/prometheus/releases/tag/v3.14.0","date":"2026-08-18T08:49:40Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.14.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/prometheus/prometheus/releases/tag/v3.14.0-rc.0","date":"2026-08-11T11:05:32Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v3.14.0-rc.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/prometheus/prometheus/releases/tag/v3.13.2","date":"2026-07-30T13:25:26Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.13.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/prometheus/prometheus/releases/tag/v3.13.1","date":"2026-07-10T10:34:15Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.13.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/prometheus/prometheus/releases/tag/v3.5.5","date":"2026-07-09T08:41:56Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.5.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/prometheus/prometheus/releases/tag/v3.13.0","date":"2026-07-01T14:09:29Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.13.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/prometheus/prometheus/releases/tag/v3.13.0-rc.1","date":"2026-06-22T16:45:27Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v3.13.0-rc.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/prometheus/prometheus/releases/tag/v3.13.0-rc.0","date":"2026-07-09T08:16:34Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v3.13.0-rc.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/prometheus/prometheus/releases/tag/v3.5.4","date":"2026-06-17T15:14:04Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.5.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/prometheus/prometheus/releases/tag/v3.12.0","date":"2026-05-28T17:40:13Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.12.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/prometheus/prometheus/releases/tag/v3.12.0-rc.0","date":"2026-05-19T10:46:20Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v3.12.0-rc.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/prometheus/prometheus/releases/tag/v3.11.3","date":"2026-04-27T15:56:23Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.11.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/prometheus/prometheus/releases/tag/v3.5.3","date":"2026-04-27T14:55:57Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.5.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/prometheus/prometheus/releases/tag/v3.11.2","date":"2026-04-13T15:17:52Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.11.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/prometheus/prometheus/releases/tag/v3.5.2","date":"2026-04-13T15:17:26Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.5.2"}]` | `[{"url":"https://github.com/timescale/timescaledb/releases/tag/2.30.2","date":"2026-09-29T15:20:31Z","type":"stable","version":"2.30.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/timescale/timescaledb/releases/tag/2.30.1","date":"2026-09-17T09:21:45Z","type":"stable","version":"2.30.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/timescale/timescaledb/releases/tag/2.30.0","date":"2026-09-08T10:54:46Z","type":"stable","version":"2.30.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/timescale/timescaledb/releases/tag/2.29.2","date":"2026-08-18T08:48:11Z","type":"stable","version":"2.29.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/timescale/timescaledb/releases/tag/2.29.1","date":"2026-08-04T08:54:38Z","type":"stable","version":"2.29.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/timescale/timescaledb/releases/tag/2.29.0","date":"2026-07-28T11:49:24Z","type":"stable","version":"2.29.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/timescale/timescaledb/releases/tag/2.28.3","date":"2026-07-16T12:54:32Z","type":"stable","version":"2.28.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/timescale/timescaledb/releases/tag/2.28.2","date":"2026-06-30T11:35:40Z","type":"stable","version":"2.28.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/timescale/timescaledb/releases/tag/2.28.1","date":"2026-06-23T08:29:24Z","type":"stable","version":"2.28.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/timescale/timescaledb/releases/tag/2.28.0","date":"2026-06-16T10:20:10Z","type":"stable","version":"2.28.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/timescale/timescaledb/releases/tag/2.27.2","date":"2026-06-02T10:28:34Z","type":"stable","version":"2.27.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/timescale/timescaledb/releases/tag/2.27.1","date":"2026-05-19T10:37:36Z","type":"stable","version":"2.27.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/timescale/timescaledb/releases/tag/2.27.0","date":"2026-05-12T08:35:57Z","type":"stable","version":"2.27.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/timescale/timescaledb/releases/tag/2.26.4","date":"2026-04-28T20:37:35Z","type":"stable","version":"2.26.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/timescale/timescaledb/releases/tag/2.26.3","date":"2026-04-14T09:24:02Z","type":"stable","version":"2.26.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/timescale/timescaledb/releases/tag/2.26.2","date":"2026-04-08T10:37:56Z","type":"stable","version":"2.26.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/timescale/timescaledb/releases/tag/2.26.1","date":"2026-03-30T08:23:08Z","type":"stable","version":"2.26.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/timescale/timescaledb/releases/tag/2.26.0","date":"2026-03-24T12:44:25Z","type":"stable","version":"2.26.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/timescale/timescaledb/releases/tag/2.25.2","date":"2026-03-03T09:28:51Z","type":"stable","version":"2.25.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/timescale/timescaledb/releases/tag/2.25.1","date":"2026-02-17T11:43:20Z","type":"stable","version":"2.25.1"}]` |
| reliability.status_page | - | yes |
| security.certifications | - | `[{"name":"SOC 2 Type II","level":"Type II","status":"active"}]` |
| security.disclosure_policy | yes | yes |
| security.gdpr | yes | yes |
| security.hipaa | - | yes |
| security.pci | - | yes |
| security.scorecard | 8.1 | 4.6 |
| security.soc2 | - | yes |
| security.trust_center | https://prometheus.io/docs/operating/security/ | https://www.tigerdata.com/security |
| security.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=alpine&package_name=postgresql-timescaledb&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":null}` |

## Capabilities (Time-Series Databases)

| Capability | Prometheus | TimescaleDB |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Query** |  |  |
| Query language (SQL / PromQL / InfluxQL-Flux / Graphite) | PromQL | SQL |
| SQL compatibility | Non-SQL | Full SQL |
| **Ingest** |  |  |
| Ingest model | Both | Both |
| **Model** |  |  |
| Data model | Metrics (labels/tags) | Metrics (labels/tags) |
| **Lifecycle** |  |  |
| Downsampling / rollups | - | Continuous aggregates |
| Retention / TTL | - | Automatic |
| **Storage** |  |  |
| Compression (columnar / delta / Gorilla) | XOR2 float chunk encoding | Row-columnar with compression |
| **Performance** |  |  |
| High-cardinality handling | Strong | Strong |
| **Scale** |  |  |
| Clustering / horizontal scale | Distributed / sharded | Distributed / sharded |
| Replication / HA | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Deployment** |  |  |
| Deployment | Self-hosted | Embedded |
| **Interop** |  |  |
| Prometheus remote-write compatible | ✓ | - |
| **Licensing** |  |  |
| Licence class | Permissive OSS | Permissive OSS |

*Source: vioscaleAI. Generated 2026-10-16T18:31:18.889Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*