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Software · head to head

Elastic vs Prometheus

E

Elastic

Software

Search AI powered by Elasticsearch

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Prometheus logo

Prometheus

Software

Open source monitoring and alerting toolkit for cloud native environments

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Prometheus has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Elastic the 99.95% monthly uptime SLA is only offered on the Platinum and Enterprise subscription tiers of Hosted deployments, not on lower tiers, per elastic.co, August 2026; Prometheus not suitable for per-request billing as collected data lacks 100% accuracy

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Elastic and Prometheus actually diverge.

Attributes where Elastic and Prometheus differ
AttributeElasticPrometheus
Starting priceOn requestFree
Pricing modelUnknownopen-source
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWebLinux, macOS, Windows
FoundedUnknown2015

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated), category (Unknown).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Elastic

Nothing recorded that Prometheus does not also cover.

Only in Prometheus

  • Multi-dimensional Data Model
  • PromQL Query Language
  • Pull-based Collection
  • Service Discovery
  • Alerting Rules
  • Federation
  • Local Storage
  • Grafana

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Elastic

No use cases recorded yet. See the Elastic review.

Prometheus

  • Cloud-native monitoring and alertingnot Elastic
  • Time-series metrics collectionnot Elastic
  • Infrastructure monitoringnot Elastic

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Elastic

  • The 99.95% monthly uptime SLA is only offered on the Platinum and Enterprise subscription tiers of Hosted deployments, not on lower tiers, per elastic.co, August 2026

Prometheus

  • Not suitable for per-request billing as collected data lacks 100% accuracy
  • Hard limit on scrape body size; large responses cause scrape failure
  • Per-scrape sample limit enforced; exceeding limit marks targets as failed
  • Not designed for long-term durable storage; optimised for metrics collection

Pricing, plan by plan

Elastic

On request

No published plan breakdown. See the Elastic review.

Prometheus

Free

No published plan breakdown. See the Prometheus review.

Which should you pick?

Choose Elastic if

Nothing in the data separates Elastic from Prometheus on the points above - pick on price and on how each one feels to use.

Elastic review

Choose Prometheus if

  • You need multi-dimensional data model.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, macOS, Windows.
  • You also want promql query language.
Prometheus review

Questions people ask

Is Elastic or Prometheus better?
Neither clearly leads. Elastic starts at On request and Prometheus at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Elastic or Prometheus?
Prometheus has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for Elastic and Free for Prometheus.
Does Elastic or Prometheus run on more platforms?
Elastic runs on Web. Prometheus runs on Linux, macOS, Windows.
Can I use Prometheus for free?
Yes. Prometheus has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Elastic starts at On request.
What can Elastic do that Prometheus cannot?
Prometheus covers Multi-dimensional Data Model, PromQL Query Language, Pull-based Collection, Service Discovery.
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