What are the best free alternatives to Grafana?

Prometheus, VictoriaMetrics, Beszel, node_exporter. All are reviewed on Stack Gems in the same category (metrics tools); 4 free or open source.

Is there an open-source alternative to Grafana?

Yes: Prometheus (Apache-2.0), VictoriaMetrics (Apache-2.0), Beszel (OSS/MIT), node_exporter (Apache-2.0).

Alternatives · Metrics

Grafana alternatives (2026)

Grafana: The universal observability dashboard.

Its Catch: Dashboard sprawl becomes a maintenance burden.

Below: 4 free or free-tier tools from the same category (metrics tools), free and open source first, then the closest match by shared tags. Each keeps its own Catch.

1.PrometheusTime-series metrics for cloud-native
Free / OSS · Apache-2.0 · 66.6k GitHub stars
VerdictThe foundation of cloud-native metrics.
CatchSingle-node storage limits scale. PromQL has a learning curve. High cardinality labels cause problems.
2.VictoriaMetricsApache-2.0 Prom-compatible TSDB storage swap, not full APM UI
Free / OSS · Apache-2.0 · 17.9k GitHub stars
VerdictApache-2.0 Prom-compatible TSDB. CE free; downsampling/anomaly/multi-tenant Enterprise.
CatchStorage/metrics engine - not Grafana/SigNoz APM UI. Downsampling, anomaly detection (vmanomaly), and advanced multi-tenant stats/rate-limit bits are Enterprise. Distinct from Prometheus encyclopedia and SigNoz all-in-one.
3.BeszelMIT lightweight server + Docker monitoring — PocketBase hub, tiny agents, alerts
Free / OSS · OSS/MIT · 26.3k GitHub stars
VerdictMIT self-hosted server and container monitoring when Prometheus + Grafana is too much — free, quick to run, but a fixed metric set on a single-hub design.
CatchFixed set of host and container metrics, not a general metrics platform: no PromQL, no custom app metrics, no logs or traces. The hub is one PocketBase (SQLite) app, so think small fleets, not hundreds of nodes with long high-resolution retention. The agent needs host access (and the Docker/Podman socket for container stats), so scope it like any privileged daemon. Vs Uptime Kuma (endpoint uptime), Dozzle (container logs) and Prometheus + Grafana (full metrics stack): Beszel is the resource-history-and-alerts middle seat.
4.node_exporterApache-2.0 official Prometheus host-metrics exporter
Free / OSS · Apache-2.0 · 13.9k GitHub stars
VerdictThe first thing to install on any Linux box you want to watch with Prometheus.
CatchIt only exposes metrics: you still need a Prometheus server (or a compatible scraper) to store them and something like Grafana to view and alert on them. Running it in a container needs host networking, the host PID namespace and a read-only bind mount of / with --path.rootfs, or it ends up measuring the container instead of the machine. Windows needs the separate windows_exporter, and NVIDIA GPUs need dcgm-exporter.

FAQ

What are the best free alternatives to Grafana?: Prometheus, VictoriaMetrics, Beszel, node_exporter. All are reviewed on Stack Gems in the same category (metrics tools); 4 free or open source.
What is the catch with Grafana?: Dashboard sprawl becomes a maintenance burden.
Is there an open-source alternative to Grafana?: Yes: Prometheus (Apache-2.0), VictoriaMetrics (Apache-2.0), Beszel (OSS/MIT), node_exporter (Apache-2.0).

Grafana alternatives (2026)

FAQ

More