InfluxDBvs
Prometheus
Prometheus: Time series database for metrics and monitoring with similar data model and high write throughput.
InfluxDB
Purpose-built time series database for metrics and events
As of 30 August 2026, InfluxDB has a free plan and paid plans start at $0.0025/per MB ingested. InfluxDB is an open source time series database designed to handle high write and query loads. Softwr lists it under Logging. InfluxDB is made by InfluxData, launched in 2013, available on Web, Self-hosted, Linux, macOS.
Overview
What InfluxDB does
InfluxDB is an open source time series database designed to handle high write and query loads. It is ideal for use cases involving large amounts of timestamped data, including DevOps monitoring, IoT data, and real-time analytics. InfluxDB provides SQL-like query language and powerful aggregation functions.
What people use it for
- Monitoring
- IoT data
- Financial data
- Log analytics
- Observability
Related searches
The honest half
Where it falls short
Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about InfluxDB.
- High-cardinality data causes memory pressure and performance degradation
- No support for joins or transactions like relational databases
- Queries limited to 72-hour window in InfluxDB 3 OSS Core
- Clustering and authentication features absent from community version
Cross-shopped
What people choose instead of InfluxDB
Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.
- InfluxDBvsTimescaleDB
TimescaleDB: PostgreSQL extension for time series data with full SQL support and different approach to time series storage.
- InfluxDBvsQuestDB
QuestDB: Purpose-built time series database with high ingestion rates and columnar compression.
Pricing
What InfluxDB costs
Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.
Cloud Serverless Free
Free
- 5 MB writes per 5 minutes
- 300 MB queries per 5 minutes
- 30 day retention
- 2 databases
Cloud Serverless Usage-Based
On request
- 0.0025 USD per MB ingested
- 0.012 USD per 100 queries
- 0.002 USD per GB-hour storage
- 0.09 USD per GB data egress
Capabilities
Features
Time-series Storage
Flux Query Language
High Write Throughput
Data Compression
Retention Policies
Continuous Queries
Built-in Dashboards
Telegraf
Integration with Telegraf
Grafana
Integration with Grafana
Kapacitor
Integration with Kapacitor
Chronograf
Integration with Chronograf
Prometheus
Integration with Prometheus
Answered, with sources
Questions people ask
Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
Is there a free tier and what are the limits?
InfluxDB 3 Core OSS is free forever for local development and prototyping. Cloud Serverless free tier includes 5 MB writes per 5 minutes, 300 MB queries per 5 minutes, 30 day retention, and 2 databases.
SourceCan I self-host InfluxDB?
Yes, InfluxDB 3 Core is fully open source and can be self-hosted with no license required. InfluxDB 3 Enterprise is self-managed and includes a 30-day free trial.
SourceWhat are the series cardinality limitations?
InfluxDB is sensitive to high-cardinality data. High cardinality increases RAM usage and can trigger out-of-memory errors, making it unsuitable for some workloads with many unique tag combinations.
SourceDoes InfluxDB support SQL queries?
InfluxDB has limited SQL support. Full SQL is available in InfluxDB 3, but earlier versions support only specific SQL commands and use InfluxQL as the primary query language.
SourceCan I export my data from InfluxDB?
Yes, data can be exported from InfluxDB using query results. However, the process and supported formats depend on the version and deployment type you are using.
SourceBehind it
Who makes InfluxDB
- Company
- InfluxData
- Based in
- San Francisco, California
- Founders
- Paul Dix
Timeline
InfluxDB over time
Keep looking
Where to go from InfluxDB
- InfluxDB alternativesEvery product people weigh against it
- InfluxDB pricingPlans, floors and what the tiers exclude
- InfluxDB badgesWhich rules it meets, and the figure behind each
- All Logging softwareThe full category
- Best Logging softwareThe shortlist, and how it was cut
Best Logging software for
Compare InfluxDB with
- Traceloop
- New Relic
- Checkly
- Cronitor
- Healthchecks
- Uptime.com
- ELK Stack
- Fluentd
- Graylog
- Logz.io
- Honeybadger
- Humio
- Loggly
- Kibana
- Fluentd
- Graylog
- Logstash
- Kibana
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Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for InfluxDB, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.
More on InfluxDB
InfluxDB alternatives
What people switch to, and what they give up
InfluxDB pricing
Every tier, and where the cost actually lands
Compare InfluxDB
Put it head to head with anything we hold
InfluxDB badge
Its rating, and an embed for your own site
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