Grafana
Open-source dashboard and visualization platform for metrics, logs and traces.
HN commenters use it as the dashboard layer of a self-hosted, open-source stack with Prometheus, Loki and Tempo1234, and as a cheap, low-maintenance alternative to Datadog.56 Caveats include a separate query language for each data source7, a stack too heavy for small devices8, and weaker offerings outside the core visualization product.910
Why people recommend it
Self-hosted stack · 3
Commonly self-hosted alongside Prometheus, Loki, Tempo and Alloy as a fully open-source observability stack.
“I run OSS Grafana with Loki, Prometheus, and Tempo.”
“just using simple scripts + graphana + prometheus + Loki and for alloy/nodeexporter”
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“a full monitoring stack (Grafana + Prometheus + Loki + Grafana Alloy, etc.)”
Data source flexibility · 3
Works on top of many backends, including VictoriaMetrics, ClickHouse, Postgres and Graphite.
“redirect the data to my own Postgres+Grafana setup for recording and monitoring”
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“I'm currently implementing a full observability platform based on VictoriaMetrics / Victorialogs + Grafana.”
Home monitoring · 3
Used to monitor homelabs, workstations and home sensors.
“using things like Grafana+Prometheus to monitor your personal computer/workstation as well. This is what I've done”
“Grafana + Prometheus monitoring everything.”
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“redirect the data to my own Postgres+Grafana setup for recording and monitoring”
Visualization · 3
Described as better than alternatives for core data visualization and exploration, with good dashboards.
“But Grafana is still way better if you just stay away from anything that isn't the core product”
“I was able to have a really good TrueNAS monitoring dashboard in Grafana.”
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“I highly recommend this video about it being used at a water treatment plant”
Low cost · 3
One team reports years of mostly maintenance-free use for under $100/month instead of Datadog.
“we use Grafana + Loki + ClickHouse and it's been mostly maintenance-free for years. Costs under $100/month.”
“I run OSS Grafana with Loki, Prometheus, and Tempo.”
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“maybe some kind of OTel, wide log, ClickHouse, Grafana thing”
Caveats and dissent
Multiple query languages · 1
Each data source needs its own query language, which pushed one employer to Datadog.
“I run OSS Grafana with Loki, Prometheus, and Tempo.”
Scaling complexity · 1
Scaling the self-hosted stack gets more complicated.
“I run OSS Grafana with Loki, Prometheus, and Tempo.”
Heavy for small devices · 1
A Prometheus/Grafana setup was too heavy for small devices.
“Monitoring (Prometheus/Grafana) was too heavy for small devices.”
Non-core products · 1
One commenter advises staying away from anything outside the core visualization product.
“But Grafana is still way better if you just stay away from anything that isn't the core product”
Business model · 1
A commenter claims free plugins are made hard to manage to push users to pay.
“make the free plugin a nightmare to manage to coax folk into paying for it”
Community dashboards · 1
An imported community dashboard showed no data and wrong units until panels were remapped.
“I was able to have a really good TrueNAS monitoring dashboard in Grafana.”
Often compared with
Who recommends it in their own words
From the makers not counted in the ranking
“Observability stack — Prometheus, Grafana, dashboards, alerting, and on-call workflows”
Threads where it came up
- Ask HN: What do you run on a $5 VPS that's worth keeping online 24/7? 2 mentions
- OTel isn’t going well 2 mentions
- I can't recommend Grafana anymore 2 mentions
- What I self-host 1 mention
- Tell HN: GitHub refuses to remove cracked copies of my software after a month 1 mention
- item 49877097 1 mention
Data: grafana.json. Quotes are verbatim; the verdict and theme labels are written by a model from these comments, and every clause links to its sources.
All comments 25
“grafana/prometheus”
“Prometheus, grafana & monitorix: monitoring”
“I run the following services / apps.”
“make the free plugin a nightmare to manage to coax folk into paying for it”
“I was able to have a really good TrueNAS monitoring dashboard in Grafana.”
“installed Prometheus and Grafana and built grafana dashboards all using AI”
“Prometheus and Grafana”
“we also query into it with grafana”
“I run OSS Grafana with Loki, Prometheus, and Tempo.”
“using things like Grafana+Prometheus to monitor your personal computer/workstation as well. This is what I've done”
“I highly recommend this video about it being used at a water treatment plant”
“a full monitoring stack (Grafana + Prometheus + Loki + Grafana Alloy, etc.)”
“my own VictoriaMetrics / Grafana set up on Kubernetes”
“Give Claude/Codex access to observability (Grafana, Prometheus, Tempo, PagerDuty)”
“Grafana + Prometheus monitoring everything.”
“just using simple scripts + graphana + prometheus + Loki and for alloy/nodeexporter”
“Monitoring (Prometheus/Grafana) was too heavy for small devices.”
“maybe some kind of OTel, wide log, ClickHouse, Grafana thing”
“I use monitoring and automation tools like Zabbix, Grafana, Ansible, and Terraform”
“Was messing around with Grafana and other stuff”
“redirect the data to my own Postgres+Grafana setup for recording and monitoring”
“we use Grafana + Loki + ClickHouse and it's been mostly maintenance-free for years. Costs under $100/month.”
“I have found Grafana to be a decent product”
“But Grafana is still way better if you just stay away from anything that isn't the core product”
“I'm currently implementing a full observability platform based on VictoriaMetrics / Victorialogs + Grafana.”