VictoriaMetrics

Fast, cost-effective time series database for metrics

As of 29 August 2026, VictoriaMetrics is free to use. A Prometheus-compatible metrics store built for lower memory and disk use at long retention. Softwr lists it under Cloud. VictoriaMetrics is available on Linux, Self-hosted.

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Overview

What VictoriaMetrics does

VictoriaMetrics is an open-source time series database and monitoring solution, designed as a drop-in long-term store for Prometheus metrics. It speaks PromQL and the Prometheus remote write protocol, so existing dashboards and alerts keep working. Its reason to exist is cost. Prometheus is excellent at collection but was not designed for long retention at scale, and teams keeping months of high-cardinality metrics hit memory and disk problems. VictoriaMetrics targets exactly that, claiming substantially lower resource use for the same data.

What people use it for

Keeping months or years of Prometheus metrics without the memory cost
High-cardinality metrics where Prometheus struggles
Consolidating metrics from many Prometheus instances into one queryable store

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 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

Cross-shopped

What people choose instead of VictoriaMetrics

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.

VictoriaMetricsvs
Prometheus
Prometheus: The standard metrics collector, which VictoriaMetrics usually sits behind rather than replaces
VictoriaMetricsvs
Grafana
Grafana: The visualisation layer on top; complementary rather than an alternative

Pricing

What VictoriaMetrics costs

Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.

VictoriaMetrics

Free

Full functionality
No data limits
Community support

Capabilities

Features

PromQL compatible
Existing Prometheus queries, dashboards and alerts work unchanged
Low resource use
Designed for lower memory and disk consumption at long retention
Single binary or cluster
Runs as one process for small setups, or clustered for scale
Remote write target
Drops in behind Prometheus as long-term storage

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 VictoriaMetrics free?

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

Does it replace Prometheus?

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

Is PromQL fully supported?

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

Keep looking

Where to go from VictoriaMetrics

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Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for VictoriaMetrics, 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.