Networking · pricing
Prometheus pricing
Prometheus publishes a single tier. Below is what it costs, what it covers, and how that compares with the networking tools listed alongside it.
As of 30 August 2026, Prometheus pricing is free. Figures are the vendor's list prices as recorded on this page's last check; the vendor's site is the final word.
- Entry price
- Free
- Model
- Open-source
- Tiers
- 1
- Free tier
- Yes
Prometheus plans, side by side
Every published tier in ascending order of price, with the number of features each one lists. An absence here means the record does not itemise it, not that the tier lacks it.
| Plan | Price | Features listed | Step up from the tier below |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prometheus (Open Source) | Free | 5 | Entry tier |
Where Prometheus stops being free
Prometheus (Open Source), Free
- 100% open source
- Community-driven project
- Apache 2 License
- All components available on GitHub
- CNCF graduated project
No paid tier on record
Prometheus lists a free tier and no priced tier above it in the record we hold.
What the product covers
The full Prometheus feature record, grouped as the catalogue groups it. This is the product as a whole; the record does not map every feature onto a specific tier.
Other
- Multi-dimensional Data Model
- PromQL Query Language
- Pull-based Collection
- Service Discovery
- Alerting Rules
- Federation
- Local Storage
Integrations
- Grafana
- Alertmanager
- Kubernetes
- Node Exporter
- Thanos
Platform
- Linux support
- Windows support
- Mac support
- Docker support
- Kubernetes support
People bring Prometheus in for monitoring and alerting system, time-series database, infrastructure metrics collection. If that is not the job you are buying for, the alternatives to Prometheus are worth a look before you commit to a tier.
How that compares in Networking
Too few networking tools in this directory publish a starting price to quote a meaningful median, so the table below is a like-for-like list rather than a ranking.
| Tool | Entry price | Model | Rated | Head to head |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prometheus (this page) | Free | open-source | - | |
| MikroTik RouterOS | On request | One-time purchase, per licence level | - | vs Prometheus |
| Cisco Meraki | On request | quote, hardware plus mandatory recurring licence | - | vs Prometheus |
| PRTG Network Monitor | On request | Per sensor tier, billed monthly on an annual contract | - | vs Prometheus |
| OpenVPN | Free | Open source core is free; Access Server billed per simultaneous connection | - | vs Prometheus |
| Icinga | Free | Open source core, with paid repository, module and support subscriptions sold separately | - | vs Prometheus |
| pfSense | Free | Open source Community Edition, free; commercial Plus edition sold separately by Netgate | - | vs Prometheus |
Ratings are aggregated from third-party sources and imported with each catalogue entry, they are not reviews hosted on Softwr. How each figure is used is set out on the Prometheus badges page.
Before you pay for Prometheus
Three things this page cannot tell you, and all three change the bill. The record carries a price and a billing period but not the unit - per-seat and flat-rate pricing are indistinguishable in this data, so a five-person team may be looking at five times the figure above. It carries no annual rate, so any discount for paying yearly is not something this page can quote. And it carries no trial length.
What it can tell you is the shape of the ladder: a single tier at Free. Because there is a free tier, the cheapest way to answer the rest is to use it before paying anything.
Prometheus runs on linux, macos, windows, and is published by Cloud Native Computing Foundation of San Francisco, California. The full record is on the Prometheus review, and the rest of the category is under best networking tools.
Prometheus pricing questions
- How much does Prometheus cost?
- Prometheus publishes a single tier, Prometheus (Open Source), at Free.
- Does Prometheus have a free plan?
- Yes. The Prometheus (Open Source) tier costs nothing and covers 100% open source, community-driven project, apache 2 license.
- Which networking tools can I use without paying?
- 3 of the 8 networking tools listed alongside Prometheus have a free tier: OpenVPN, Icinga, pfSense.
- What am I actually paying for with Prometheus?
- The record lists 17 features across 3 areas: other, integrations, platform. In practice it is brought in for monitoring and alerting system, time-series database, infrastructure metrics collection.
- Does Prometheus charge per user?
- The record carries a price and a billing period for each of its 1 tiers, but not the unit that price is charged in. Per-seat and flat-rate billing look identical in this data, so check the vendor's page before budgeting for a team.
- Are these Prometheus prices current?
- They are what the catalogue entry holds, refreshed when the entry is. Vendors change pricing without notice and nobody at Softwr re-verifies each tier by hand, so treat this as a structured summary and the vendor's own pricing page as the authority.
- What should I compare Prometheus against before paying?
- The closest networking tools in this directory are MikroTik RouterOS, Cisco Meraki, PRTG Network Monitor, OpenVPN. Each has a side-by-side comparison with Prometheus covering price, platforms and features.