updated Jul 2026deployed & timed by usprices checked · Aug 2026Install verified on Ubuntu 26.04 · Aug 2026 · how we test
The standard open-source dashboarding and visualization layer for metrics, logs, and traces, querying Prometheus, Loki, and dozens of other data sources.
Reach for Grafana when you already have metrics or logs somewhere (Prometheus, Loki, ClickHouse, a dozen others) and need the dashboarding and alerting layer on top — it's the standard, not a full observability stack by itself. If you want metrics collection too, pair it with Prometheus rather than looking for that inside Grafana.
Grafana is the easy part of a self-hosted observability stack; the caveats are mostly about what it doesn't do alone:
non-negotiableIt's AGPL-3.0. Same network-copyleft consideration as OpenObserve — check it fits your use before building a product on top.
non-negotiableIt's visualization, not storage. Grafana queries a data source; you still need to run and size Prometheus, Loki, or another backend yourself.
non-negotiableDashboards and alert rules want backing up. They live in Grafana's own database (SQLite by default) — move to Postgres and back it up once you depend on it.