Grafana vs Kibana
A data-driven comparison of two Open-source dashboards & BI tools: popularity, development activity, licensing and installation. Updated .
Key differences
- Grafana has 3.6× as many GitHub stars as Kibana (77.1K vs 21.3K).
- Kibana had more development activity over the last 12 months: 21,018 commits vs 11,330.
- Grafana is licensed under AGPL-3.0; Kibana under Other.
By the numbers
- Grafana
- Kibana
Show data as a table
| Metric | Grafana | Kibana |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | 77,071 | 21,305 |
| Commits, last 12 months | 11,330 | 21,018 |
| Contributors | 373 | 374 |
| Forks | 14,817 | 8,631 |
Development activity
Commits per month to each default branch, last 12 complete months.
- Grafana
- Kibana
Show data as a table
| Month | Grafana | Kibana |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 2025 | 777 | 1,452 |
| Nov 2025 | 633 | 1,090 |
| Dec 2025 | 563 | 1,229 |
| Jan 2026 | 750 | 1,234 |
| Feb 2026 | 1,021 | 1,647 |
| Mar 2026 | 1,209 | 2,050 |
| Apr 2026 | 1,184 | 2,224 |
| May 2026 | 887 | 1,761 |
| Jun 2026 | 886 | 1,448 |
| Jul 2026 | 1,247 | 2,314 |
| Aug 2026 | 1,034 | 2,148 |
| Sep 2026 | 1,139 | 2,421 |
Side by side
| Attribute | Grafana | Kibana |
|---|---|---|
| Description | Observability and data visualization platform for metrics, logs and traces from many data sources. | Visualization and dashboard UI for data stored in Elasticsearch. |
| Category | Open-source dashboards & BI tools | Open-source dashboards & BI tools |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Other |
| Language | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Status | Active | Active |
| Latest release | v13.2.3 () | v9.5.4 () |
| Last commit | ||
| Repository created | ||
| Open issues | 2,676 | 11,919 |
| Install | go get github.com/grafana/grafana | – |
Which should you choose?
Popularity and activity are only part of the story. Consider which ecosystem you work in, the chart types and interactions you need, how much data you render, and whether the license fits your project. Both tool pages list alternatives if neither is quite right.