Grafana
Open-source dashboard and visualization platform for metrics, logs, and traces. Connect to Prometheus, Loki, InfluxDB, Postgres, and 100+ other data sources to build monitoring dashboards and alerts
Quick Start
docker run -d -p 3000:3000 grafana/grafana-oss Overview
Grafana is the standard open-source tool for turning metric, log, and trace data into dashboards and alerts. Connect it to a data source — Prometheus, Loki, InfluxDB, a Postgres database, or one of 100+ supported sources — and build panels that visualise that data as graphs, gauges, tables, heatmaps, or stat cards. Alerting rules can trigger notifications to Slack, PagerDuty, email, or webhook endpoints when values cross defined thresholds.
Grafana is the visualization and alerting layer only. It does not collect or store metrics itself. The typical self-hosted stack pairs it with Prometheus for server and application metrics, Loki for log aggregation, and optionally Tempo for distributed traces. Getting value out of Grafana requires those data sources to be configured and scraping data before you open the dashboard builder.
Dashboard portability is one of Grafana’s practical strengths. Dashboards are stored as JSON and can be exported, version-controlled, and shared. The community dashboard library at grafana.com has thousands of pre-built dashboards for common systems — Node Exporter for Linux server metrics, cAdvisor for Docker containers, Postgres, Redis, and more. Most setups can start from a community import rather than building from scratch.
The AGPL-3.0 licence covers self-hosted personal and internal use without restriction. Embedding Grafana panels in a commercial product exposed to end users requires the paid Enterprise licence.
Grafana Cloud offers a free tier with generous metric and log limits if you prefer not to self-host the stack.
Grafana: Pros & Cons
| Pros (The Wins) | Cons (The Friction) |
|---|---|
| 100+ data sources: Metrics, logs, traces, and SQL databases all supported. | Viz layer only: Grafana doesn’t collect data; you still need Prometheus etc. |
| Built-in alerting: Threshold rules with routing to Slack, PagerDuty, and more. | AGPL embedding: Commercial SaaS embedding needs an Enterprise licence. |
| Community dashboards: Thousands of pre-built dashboards to import as a starting point. | PromQL learning curve: Complex queries and alert rules take time to write well. |
| Scales widely: Works from homelab to large production clusters. | Stack maintenance: Full observability stack means multiple services to keep updated. |
Use Cases
Specific ways to use Grafana for your workflow.
Deployment Strategy
Recommended ways to host Grafana in your own environment.