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Head-to-head · Time-Series Databases

Prometheus vs InfluxDB

  • Updated Oct 2026
  • Both researched from official sources
  • 4 checks side by side
Higher score Prometheus #5 in Time-Series Databases 8.8/10 Free plan Free plan✓ 1 of 3 features Visit Prometheus
InfluxDB #7 in Time-Series Databases 8.6/10 Free plan · 30-day trial Free planFree trial✓ 3 of 3 features Visit InfluxDB

Prometheus leads on 0 checks, InfluxDB on 2, and 2 are even. Who comes out ahead on the 4 yes/no, price and count checks where we have data for both products. The editor score weighs everything else too.

Our verdict

  • Highest scorePrometheus · 8.8/10
  • Free planboth
  • Free trialonly InfluxDB
  • Most featuresInfluxDB · 3 of 3

Prometheus scores higher on our rubric for time-series databases: 8.8 against 8.6 out of 10; our editors rank them #5 and #7.

On deployment, InfluxDB gives you Both where Prometheus offers Self_hosted. InfluxDB offers sql support; Prometheus doesn't. InfluxDB offers horizontal scaling; Prometheus doesn't.

Prometheus is the better fit for prometheus-native monitoring metrics. InfluxDB is the better fit for broad, production-ready time-series workloads.

  • Prometheus fits best

    Prometheus-native monitoring metrics

  • InfluxDB fits best

    Broad, production-ready time-series workloads

Advertiser disclosure: iTechGuides is reader-supported. Vendors can pay for top positions in our rankings and for a place on other products' pages, and we may earn a commission when you click some links. Bought places stand at the number bought; this page and our disclosure say so. Paying vendors may get a fuller, more detailed review from our editors, and that review can change their score. How we rank.

Side by side

Feature Prometheus 8.8/10 Visit ↗ InfluxDB 8.6/10 Visit ↗
At a glance
Editor score 8.8 8.6
Ranking #5 in Time-Series Databases #7 in Time-Series Databases
Best for Prometheus-native monitoring metrics Broad, production-ready time-series workloads
Pricing model Free Free plan + paid
Starting price Free plan $0.002/GB usage-based
Free plan ✓ ✓
Free trial — 30 days
Deployment Self-hosted Cloud, Self-hosted
Platforms Web, Windows, macOS, Linux Web, Windows, macOS, Linux
Support Community, Docs Community, Docs
Integrations 8 integrations 400+ integrations
Built for Small business, Mid-market, Enterprise Small business, Mid-market, Enterprise
Features Prometheus 1/3 · InfluxDB 3/3
SQL support — ✓ (best)
Retention policies ✓ ✓
Horizontal scaling — ✓ (best)
Specs
Deployment Self_hosted Both
Query languages PromQL SQL, InfluxQL
Ingestion methods HTTP pull scraping; Pushgateway; Remote Write; OpenMetrics backfilling line protocol, HTTP API, client libraries, Telegraf, influxdb3 CLI
Our review
Pros
  • PromQL supports selecting and aggregating labeled time-series data.
  • HTTP scraping, service discovery, and exporters support metric collection.
  • Recording rules, Alertmanager, federation, and remote storage extend monitoring.
  • SQL and InfluxQL support with multiple ingestion paths
  • Open-source Core edition for self-managed deployments
  • Cloud, enterprise, and AWS deployment options
Cons
  • No SQL support for querying time-series data.
  • Local storage is single-node rather than horizontally scaled.
  • Broader architectures require federation or remote-storage integrations.
  • Several editions have different capabilities and pricing models
  • Core is single-node and community supported
  • Enterprise and Cloud Dedicated use custom pricing
Our verdict

Prometheus is an open-source monitoring and alerting toolkit for infrastructure, applications, and services, particularly in dynamic and microservice-oriented environments. It collects numeric metrics through HTTP-based scraping and stores…

Read the review →

InfluxDB is a time-series database for developers and organizations building real-time systems, observability platforms, IoT applications, industrial systems, and analytics workloads. It stores time-stamped data using line protocol and…

Read the review →
  1. PrometheusTime-Series Databases 8.8Free plan
  2. InfluxDBTime-Series Databases 8.6Free plan · 30-day trial

Strengths and trade-offs

  • Prometheus — where it wins

    • PromQL supports selecting and aggregating labeled time-series data.
    • HTTP scraping, service discovery, and exporters support metric collection.
    • Recording rules, Alertmanager, federation, and remote storage extend monitoring.

    Where it doesn't

    • No SQL support for querying time-series data.
    • Local storage is single-node rather than horizontally scaled.
    • Broader architectures require federation or remote-storage integrations.

  • InfluxDB — where it wins

    • SQL and InfluxQL support with multiple ingestion paths
    • Open-source Core edition for self-managed deployments
    • Cloud, enterprise, and AWS deployment options

    Where it doesn't

    • Several editions have different capabilities and pricing models
    • Core is single-node and community supported
    • Enterprise and Cloud Dedicated use custom pricing
  • Prometheus8.8/10 · Free plan

    A Prometheus-native metrics platform with PromQL, alerting, retention, and federation.

    Visit PrometheusFull verdict →
  • InfluxDB8.6/10 · Free plan · 30-day trial

    A flexible time-series database with open-source, self-managed, and managed cloud editions.

    Visit InfluxDBFull verdict →

More comparisons

All Time-Series databases comparisons → · Full ranking →

Reviewed by iTechGuides Editors · Editorial team · Updated Oct 2026

Last updated · How we research and update