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It's a split decision.
Grafana and Graphite solve different jobs, so neither is a direct substitute. Choose Grafana for observability across metrics, logs, traces, profiles, dashboards, and telemetry cost controls. Its Pro plan starts with a $19 monthly platform fee, then usage charges. Choose Graphite for AI code review, stacked pull requests, and merge workflows; its Starter plan is $20 per user/month with annual billing, while monthly paid prices are not published. Both offer free plans, with limits.
01Side by side
| Grafana | Graphite | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $19/month platform fee, plus usage; no annual rate published | $20/user/month annually; monthly paid pricing not published |
| Free plan | $0; 10k active series and 50 GB/month included | Free Hobby; personal repos, limited Chat and AI Reviews |
| Best for | Observability across metrics, logs, traces, and telemetry | AI code review, stacked PRs, and merge workflows |
| Core strength | Unified telemetry, dashboards, and telemetry cost controls | AI reviews, PR inbox, and merge queue |
| Learning curve | Not published | Not published |
| Integrations and data | Metrics, logs, traces, profiles, and other telemetry | GitHub repos, CLI, VSCode extension, MCP, Slack notifications |
| Team and seat costs | Usage charges; $19 platform fee; $25,000 annual Enterprise minimum | $20–$40/user/month annually; Enterprise price not published |
| Support | Community Free; 8×5 email Pro; premium Enterprise | Enterprise lists premium support/SLAs; other support not published |
Grafana Choose Grafana if
- Choose Grafana if you need metrics, logs, traces, and telemetry together.
- Choose Grafana if usage-based observability fits your budget model.
- Choose Grafana if you need published Pro email support and retention terms.
Graphite Choose Graphite if
- Choose Graphite if code review and pull-request workflows are your problem.
- Choose Graphite if your team wants stacked PRs and a merge queue.
- Choose Graphite if annual per-user pricing works; monthly prices are unpublished.
02Pricing compared
Both products offer free plans, but their paid pricing works differently. Grafana Cloud Free is $0 and includes 14-day retention, 10,000 active metric series per month, and 50 GB per month for logs, traces, and profiles. Pro starts at a $19 monthly platform fee, then charges for usage above included allowances. Add-ons have separate rates, and Enterprise requires a $25,000 annual spend commit.
Graphite’s Hobby plan is free for personal projects, with limited AI reviews and Graphite Chat. Starter costs $20 per user per month with annual billing; Team is $40 per user per month with annual billing. Graphite lists a 20% annual-billing discount, but monthly prices for paid plans are not published. Enterprise pricing is also not published. Compare expected usage and billing terms, not just the entry prices.
03Features and depth
These products cover different jobs, not competing versions of the same tool. Grafana is an observability platform for metrics, logs, traces, profiles, and other telemetry. Its feature set includes dashboards, a Knowledge Graph for shared context, root cause investigations, AI operations tools, and telemetry cost controls. The pricing page also lists retention limits and included usage, which matter when estimating the cost of storing and processing data.
Graphite is built around code review and pull request workflows. It offers AI reviews and chat, stacked pull requests, a merge queue, a PR inbox, and CI optimizations that run stacking-integrated CI only when needed. Team adds unlimited AI reviews and chat, customizations, automations, and a merge queue. The choice is straightforward: Grafana helps teams inspect production telemetry; Graphite helps engineering teams review and merge code. Neither is a substitute for the other based on the listed features.
04Ease of use and learning curve
The learning curve depends on which workflow your team needs. Grafana’s listed work centers on telemetry, dashboards, investigations, and cost controls. Teams will also need to account for product-specific usage allowances and retention when choosing a plan; the pricing page says included usage varies by product.
Graphite’s workflow centers on pull requests, stacks, AI review, and merging. Its Hobby plan includes a CLI, VS Code extension, and MCP, while paid plans add team features. The product descriptions do not publish setup times or comparative usability data, so we would not call one easier across the board. Choose based on whether your team needs observability or code review.
Questions people ask
What is Kibana vs Grafana?
This comparison covers Grafana and Graphite, not Kibana, and the published product information does not describe Kibana. Grafana is described here as an observability platform for telemetry, dashboards, investigations, and cost management. We can’t make a sourced feature or pricing comparison with Kibana from this information.
What is Graphite in simple words?
In this comparison, Graphite means Graphite.dev: an AI code review platform. It helps teams review pull requests, manage stacked changes, and merge code through tools including AI reviews and chat, a PR inbox, and a merge queue. It is not Grafana’s observability platform.
Which database is best for Grafana?
The published Grafana information does not name supported databases or recommend one as best. It describes Grafana as bringing telemetry such as metrics, logs, and traces into an observability platform. Check Grafana’s current data-source documentation against your data and deployment needs before choosing.
What are the best visualizations in Grafana?
The published information says Grafana includes dashboards and visualization for exploring observability data, but it does not list visualization types or rank them. The right choice depends on the signal and question your team needs to inspect; we can’t name a best option from these sources.