Graphite vs Prometheus: What are the differences?

Introduction

This Markdown code provides a comparison between Graphite and Prometheus, highlighting their key differences. Graphite and Prometheus are both popular monitoring tools used in different ways to collect and visualize metric data. Below are six key differences between these monitoring tools.

1. Data Model: Graphite uses a hierarchical data model where metrics are organized into a structure resembling a file system, with metrics stored as dotted strings. On the other hand, Prometheus uses a multidimensional data model where metrics are identified by key-value pairs called labels, allowing flexible querying and filtering based on different dimensions.

2. Data Storage: Graphite stores metric data as time-series in round-robin databases (RRD), which aggregates the data over time intervals. Prometheus, in contrast, uses its custom time-series database with a flexible storage model that allows for more complex queries and retention policies.

3. Data Collection: Graphite relies on a pull-based approach, where applications or systems push metrics to the Graphite server periodically. Prometheus, however, uses a pull-based approach, where it scrapes metric endpoints exposed by monitored applications or systems at regular intervals, making it more resilient to network failures and scalable when monitoring large environments.

4. Query Language: Graphite uses its own query language called Graphite Query Language (GQL) for data retrieval and manipulation. GQL supports various wildcard expressions and mathematical operations. In contrast, Prometheus uses a more powerful query language called PromQL (Prometheus Query Language), which provides a rich set of functions, operators, and aggregations to easily explore and analyze metric data.

5. Alerting: Graphite lacks native alerting capabilities and relies on third-party tools for alerting. Prometheus, on the other hand, includes a built-in alerting system that allows defining alert rules based on custom query expressions, sending notifications to various channels (like email, Slack, PagerDuty) when specific conditions are met.

6. Ecosystem and Integrations: Graphite has a rich ecosystem of compatible tools and integrations, including Grafana for visualization, Carbon for data forwarding, and many others. Prometheus also has a growing ecosystem and integrations with popular tools like Grafana, Alertmanager, and exporters, which allow for seamless integration with existing monitoring and notification setups.

In summary, Graphite and Prometheus differ in their data models, storage mechanisms, collection methods, query languages, alerting capabilities, and ecosystem/integrations, making them suitable for different monitoring use cases and environments.