Prometheus
Monitor your applications, systems, and services with the leading open source monitoring solution.
- Also known as
- prometheus
What is Prometheus?
An open-source systems monitoring and alerting toolkit that collects and stores metrics as time series data, originally built at SoundCloud and maintained as a Cloud Native Computing Foundation graduated project.
Prometheus pricing
We don't have Prometheus's full plan breakdown yet (its pricing page resisted automated reading). Here's what we could confirm. Always check live pricing for exact numbers.
100% open source under Apache 2 License
What Prometheus does
The capabilities that matter for time-series databases, normalised so it lines up with every alternative. “-” means we haven't confirmed it, not that it's missing.
- Query language (SQL / PromQL / InfluxQL-Flux / Graphite)
- PromQL
- SQL compatibility
- Non-SQL
- Ingest model
- Both
- Data model
- Metrics (labels/tags)
- Downsampling / rollups
- -
- Retention / TTL
- -
- Compression (columnar / delta / Gorilla)
- -
- High-cardinality handling
- Strong
- Clustering / horizontal scale
- Single-node
- Replication / HA
- ✗
- Deployment
- Self-hosted
- Prometheus remote-write compatible
- ✓
- Licence class
- Permissive OSS
Platform & deployment
Independently observed- CLI
- Cloud / SaaS
- On-premise
- Self-hosted
Integrations (3)
Independently observed- Kubernetes
- Alertmanager
- Grafana
Prometheus alternatives
Other time-series databases we track, ranked by the same independent score.
- TDengineFree forever for up to 5,000 tags, with annual and perpetual licenses for larger deploymentslow · 41%
- GreptimeDBThe Single Database for Observabilitylow · 30%
- TimescaleDBTime-Series PostgreSQL at Petabyte Scalelow · 46%
- ClickHouseThe leading database for AIlow · 24%
- InfluxDBThe time series database built to scale with youlow · 48%
- ClickHouseThe leading database for AIlow · 39%
The Vioscale score: one lens on the evidence
Not user reviews and not a paid placement: a confidence-weighted blend of the independent signals below (adoption, activity, security posture, and more), which you can sort and re-weight yourself. Vendors can correct their listing but can never move their rank, and stars are weighted low as a vanity metric. It is one way to read the evidence for Prometheus, not the verdict.
| Signal | Score | Weight | Contribution | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Github Activity | 63 | 20.00 | 1262.0 | ✓ |
| Release Cadence | 96 | 12.00 | 1153.3 | ✓ |
| Github Stars | 91 | 7.00 | 635.9 | ✓ |
| Package Downloads | 90 | 6.00 | 540.3 | ✓ |
| Capabilities | 29 | 17.00 | 491.4 | ✓ |
| Integrations | 17 | 8.00 | 138.5 | ✓ |
| Security Posture | 0 | 18.00 | 0.0 | - |
| Stackoverflow Activity | 0 | 20.00 | 0.0 | - |
Computed . Re-weight it by intent, or see the full method.
All data & sourcesshow ↓
Every value we hold, with its source, retrieval date, and confidence. This is the evidence behind the score: don't trust it, verify it.
Activity
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Commits last 30d | 100 | mediumsource · 2026-08-01 · 65% |
Adoption
Features
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Capabilities | {"clustering":"single_node","data_model":"metrics","deployment":"self_hosted","ingest_model":"both","licence_class":"permissive_oss","query_language":"PromQL","replication_ha":false,"high_cardinality":"strong","sql_compatibility":"non_sql","prometheus_remote_write":true} | mediumsource · 2026-08-01 · 60% |
Integrations
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Count | 3 | mediumsource · 2026-08-01 · 60% |
Language
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Primary | Go | highsource · 2026-08-01 · 90% |
License
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Spdx | Apache-2.0 | highsource · 2026-08-01 · 95% |
Pricing
Release
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Cadence days | 7 | mediumsource · 2026-08-01 · 70% |