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APIs · head to head

Formance vs VictoriaMetrics

Formance logo

Formance

APIs

Open source double-entry ledger and payment orchestration for money-moving software

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
VictoriaMetrics logo

VictoriaMetrics

Cloud

Fast, cost-effective time series database for metrics

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Formance formance holds no money and provides no regulatory cover, so it must be paired with a payments provider or bank, and buyers occasionally mistake a ledger for a treasury system and discover the gap late.; VictoriaMetrics promQL compatibility is very close but not identical, and MetricsQL extensions do not port back
  • They diverge on capability: Formance covers Double-entry ledger, VictoriaMetrics covers PromQL compatible.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Formance and VictoriaMetrics actually diverge.

Attributes where Formance and VictoriaMetrics differ
AttributeFormanceVictoriaMetrics
PlatformsLinux, Docker, Kubernetes, Web, APILinux, Docker, Kubernetes, Self-hosted
CategoryAPIsCloud

Identical on both: starting price (Free), pricing model (Open source, no licence fee), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated).

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 Formance

  • Double-entry ledger
  • Numscript transaction DSL
  • Multi-currency
  • Payments connectivity
  • Reconciliation
  • Self-hosted deployment
  • Cloud offering
  • API and SDKs

Only in VictoriaMetrics

  • PromQL compatible
  • Low resource use
  • Single binary or cluster
  • Remote write target

What people use each for

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

Formance

  • A marketplace splitting a single customer payment between seller, platform fee and tax that needs the split to be atomic and auditablenot VictoriaMetrics
  • A fintech whose homegrown balances table produced numbers finance could not reconcile and now needs proper double-entry before an auditnot VictoriaMetrics
  • A payments team that wants one normalised model across several PSPs so reconciliation is not written separately for eachnot VictoriaMetrics
  • A company that wants its ledger under a licence it can keep running even if the vendor disappearsnot VictoriaMetrics

VictoriaMetrics

  • Keeping months or years of Prometheus metrics without the memory costnot Formance
  • High-cardinality metrics where Prometheus strugglesnot Formance
  • Consolidating metrics from many Prometheus instances into one queryable storenot Formance

Where each one falls short

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

Formance

  • Formance holds no money and provides no regulatory cover, so it must be paired with a payments provider or bank, and buyers occasionally mistake a ledger for a treasury system and discover the gap late.
  • Numscript is a domain-specific language your team must learn, and while it makes complex splits expressible it also means transaction logic sits outside the languages your engineers already debug well.
  • Self-hosting a ledger that must never lose or duplicate a transaction is a serious operational commitment covering backups, upgrades and Postgres tuning, which is real cost the zero licence fee hides.
  • Enterprise pricing is not published, so the difference between the free path and the supported path cannot be evaluated without a sales conversation.
  • The company is much smaller than the incumbent alternatives, and while the MIT licence protects the code it does not protect the roadmap, so features on the hosted side may arrive slowly or change direction.

VictoriaMetrics

  • PromQL compatibility is very close but not identical, and MetricsQL extensions do not port back
  • Smaller community than Prometheus, so fewer guides and third-party integrations
  • The clustered version has meaningfully more moving parts than the single binary suggests
  • Some enterprise features sit outside the open-source offering

Pricing, plan by plan

Formance

Free
  • Open SourceFree
    • MIT licensed core ledger
    • Numscript transaction DSL
    • Multi-currency tracking
  • Enterprise$undefined/year
    • Managed or private deployment
    • Payments connectivity and reconciliation
    • Support with response commitments

VictoriaMetrics

Free
  • VictoriaMetricsFree
    • Full functionality
    • No data limits
    • Community support

Which should you pick?

Choose Formance if

  • You need double-entry ledger.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Web, API.
  • You also want numscript transaction dsl.
Formance review

Choose VictoriaMetrics if

  • You need promql compatible.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Self-hosted.
  • You also want low resource use.
VictoriaMetrics review

Questions people ask

Is Formance or VictoriaMetrics better?
Neither clearly leads. Formance starts at Free and VictoriaMetrics at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Formance or VictoriaMetrics?
Formance starts at Free and VictoriaMetrics at Free.
Does Formance or VictoriaMetrics run on more platforms?
Formance runs on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Web, API. VictoriaMetrics runs on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Self-hosted.
Can I use Formance for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Formance best used for?
Formance is most often used for a marketplace splitting a single customer payment between seller, platform fee and tax that needs the split to be atomic and auditable, a fintech whose homegrown balances table produced numbers finance could not reconcile and now needs proper double-entry before an audit, a payments team that wants one normalised model across several psps so reconciliation is not written separately for each, a company that wants its ledger under a licence it can keep running even if the vendor disappears. Of those, a marketplace splitting a single customer payment between seller, platform fee and tax that needs the split to be atomic and auditable and a fintech whose homegrown balances table produced numbers finance could not reconcile and now needs proper double-entry before an audit are not what VictoriaMetrics is typically brought in for.
What can Formance do that VictoriaMetrics cannot?
Formance covers Double-entry ledger, Numscript transaction DSL, Multi-currency, Payments connectivity. VictoriaMetrics covers PromQL compatible, Low resource use, Single binary or cluster, Remote write target.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Formance: Is Formance really open source?

Yes. The core ledger is MIT licensed with full source access and no deployment restrictions.

VictoriaMetrics: Is VictoriaMetrics free?

The open-source version is free with no data limits. An enterprise edition and cloud service are paid.

Formance: Does Formance move money?

No. It records and orchestrates movements; the actual payments happen at a PSP or bank you connect.

VictoriaMetrics: Does it replace Prometheus?

It can, but most teams keep Prometheus for scraping and use VictoriaMetrics as the long-term store behind it.

Formance: What does the enterprise version cost?

Not published. It is an annual subscription quoted per customer.

VictoriaMetrics: Is PromQL fully supported?

Very nearly. It implements PromQL and extends it with MetricsQL, though a small number of edge-case behaviours differ.

Formance: Do I have to use Numscript?

Yes for anything beyond the simplest transfers. It is how multi-party transactions are expressed atomically.

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