Grafana is an open-source visualization and analytics platform that stands out in the field of monitoring solutions. Grafana is widely recognized for its powerful, easy-to-set-up dashboards and visualizations. Grafana supports integration with a wide array of data sources and tools, including Prometheus, InfluxDB, MySQL, Splunk, and Elasticsearch, enhancing its versatility. Grafana has open-source and cloud options; the open-source version is a good choice for organizations with the resources to manage their infrastructure and want more control over their deployment. The cloud service is a good choice if you want a fully managed solution that is easy to start with and scale.
Grafana's most valuable features, according to various user reviews, include its alarm formatting capability, good integration and accurate application metrics, excellent alerts and dashboard visualization, ease of use and scalability, free of cost, heat maps, deployment markers, and multiple data source connectivity. Users also appreciate Grafana's adaptability, user-friendly interface, live monitoring and alerts, and capacity planning capabilities. Additionally, the solution's customizability, flexibility in integration with other tools, and open-source nature have been highly praised by users.
Users have provided a range of suggestions for improving Grafana. Some have noted that the documentation and training could be more robust, while others have called for more accessible interfaces and improved event management. Users have also suggested that Grafana could benefit from additional plugins and AI features, more accurate reporting, improved log management, and better charting and graphing capabilities. Some users have expressed frustration with the product's licensing and support, and have called for better integration with other tools. Additionally, users have suggested improvements in areas such as API monitoring, error messaging, and data aggregation.
Grafana has been a valuable and cost-effective solution for the company, providing comprehensive views of applications and infrastructure. Some have seen a return on investment and found it easy to use for monitoring and alerting policies.
Grafana has different versions with varying pricing and licensing options, including a free version that can be used as a visualization tool. The cost of the solution depends on the infrastructure and the number of metrics being ingested per day. Some reviewers found the pricing to be moderate, while others found it to be expensive. The open source version of Grafana is free and can be used for some needs, but the enterprise version may need to be purchased for certain features or plugins. Planning and performance considerations are important when using Grafana, as it can be heavy on memory and computing resources.
Grafana is used for a variety of purposes including monitoring the performance of serverless cores, creating dashboards, visualizing and monitoring network operations, monitoring applications and infrastructure, analyzing technical and business metrics, MySQL monitoring, site visibility, integrated logging, dashboard and visualization tool for business units, understanding trends and troubleshooting issues, application metrics and data utilization, monitoring live load tests, matrix and logging Kubernetes, configuring high-performance servers, creating business and technical dashboards, observability dashboards, monitoring infrastructure, monitoring payment transactions, and visualizing IT infrastructure monitoring data. It is used by a range of industries including financial institutions, e-commerce businesses, logistics projects, and retail markets.
Grafana has a customer service team with support engineers available for the enterprise and pro versions. However, there is also a large community of users who can provide help. Technical support is responsive and helpful, with fast response times and good expertise. Some users have not needed technical support, while others have relied on forums and online documentation for assistance.
Grafana's setup varies in difficulty depending on the user's experience and use cases. Some found it straightforward and easy, while others found it complex and tricky. It can take anywhere from 20 minutes to a couple of weeks to complete the deployment. Once set up, the solution is generally easy to maintain. Some users needed outside help or lacked support documentation during deployment.
Grafana is used by various organizations with a range of users, and the scalability of the solution is generally rated positively. Some users rate it highly and claim that it can extend well, while others feel that it could be improved or is complicated to scale. The scalability of Grafana is dependent on several factors, such as the number of users, metrics, and the cost per size of logs or series. However, most users agree that it is a scalable solution that can be implemented in multiple environments and is suitable for monitoring, log monitoring, and alerting.
Grafana is a stable solution with no reported downtime or glitches. Users rate its stability between seven and eight out of ten, with some noting that previous bugs have been fixed in the latest version. However, one user mentions that compared to other tools, Grafana may not be the most stable when using extensive SRE techniques. Proper optimization of computing resources can help avoid bottlenecks.
A key strength of Grafana lies in its ability to explore, visualize, query, and alert on the collected data through operational dashboards. These dashboards are highly customizable and visually appealing, making them a valuable asset for data analysis, performance tracking, trend spotting, and detecting irregularities.
Grafana provides both an open-source solution with an active community and Grafana Cloud, a fully managed and composable observability offering that packages together metrics, logs, and traces with Grafana. The open-source version is licensed under the Affero General Public License version 3.0 (AGPLv3), being free and unlimited. Grafana Cloud and Grafana Enterprise are available for more advanced needs, catering to a wider range of organizational requirements. Grafana offers options for self-managed backend systems or fully managed services via Grafana Cloud. Grafana Cloud extends observability with a wide range of solutions for infrastructure monitoring, IRM, load testing, Kubernetes monitoring, continuous profiling, frontend observability, and more.
The Grafana users we interviewed generally appreciate Grafana's ability to connect with various data sources, its straightforward usability, and its integration capabilities, especially in developer-oriented environments. The platform is noted for its practical alert configurations, ticketing backend integration, and as a powerful tool for developing dashboards. However, some users find a learning curve in the initial setup and mention the need for time investment to customize and leverage Grafana effectively. There are also calls for clearer documentation and simplification of notification alert templates.
In summary, Grafana is a comprehensive solution for data visualization and monitoring, widely used across industries for its versatility, ease of use, and extensive integration options. It suits organizations seeking a customizable and scalable platform for visualizing time-series data from diverse sources. However, users should be prepared for some complexity in setup and customization and may need to invest time in learning and tailoring the system to their specific needs.
Microsoft, Adobe, Optum, Sky, Nvidia, Roblox, Wells Fargo, BlackRock, Informatica, Maersk, Daimler Truck, SNCF, Atlassian, DHL, SAP, JPMorgan Chase, Cisco, Citi and many others.
