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Amazon CloudWatch vs Prometheus comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
7.2
Amazon CloudWatch provides efficient monitoring, reducing manual labor and enhancing ROI, prompting increased usage and cloud migration clarity.
Sentiment score
8.5
Prometheus is a cost-effective, open-source monitoring tool offering significant financial and time-saving benefits over AWS native services.
Using open-source Prometheus saves me money compared to AWS native services.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.6
Amazon CloudWatch support is highly rated for its responsiveness, knowledgeable staff, and effective tiered support system with premium options.
Sentiment score
4.0
Prometheus users benefit from extensive documentation, open-source community support, and forums, eliminating the need for traditional support.
Prometheus does not offer traditional technical support.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.7
Amazon CloudWatch is scalable, reliable, and effectively manages data for large systems, making it ideal for organizational monitoring.
Sentiment score
6.9
Prometheus is highly scalable and adaptable for diverse businesses, effectively handling demands in both cloud and on-premise environments.
Prometheus is scalable, with a rating of ten out of ten.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.2
Amazon CloudWatch is highly reliable with 99% availability, consistent performance, minor data lag, and rare downtimes, despite occasional query complexities.
Sentiment score
8.9
Prometheus is deemed stable and dependable by users, despite minor issues, especially with proper configuration and resource management.
Deploying it on multiple instances or using Kubernetes for automatic management has enhanced its stability.
 

Room For Improvement

Amazon CloudWatch needs enhancements in customization, usability, data streaming, multi-cloud support, integration, machine learning, and comprehensive documentation.
Prometheus requires enhancements in usability, scalability, integration, and features to improve user experience and monitoring efficiency.
Maybe Amazon Web Services can improve by providing a library for CloudWatch with some useful features.
 

Setup Cost

Amazon CloudWatch offers competitive pricing with a flexible pay-as-you-go model, influenced by usage and integration needs.
Prometheus is cost-effective due to its open-source nature, with optional paid services considered reasonably priced by users.
Prometheus is cost-effective for me as it is free.
 

Valuable Features

Amazon CloudWatch provides seamless AWS integration, real-time data, robust analytics, automation, security features, and cross-platform log storage.
Prometheus excels in scalability, integration, and flexibility, offering robust features like dynamic monitoring and Grafana compatibility for diverse environments.
I like its filtering capability and its ability to give the cyber engine insights.
It allows me to save money by avoiding costs associated with AWS native services like CloudWatch or Amazon Prometheus.
 

Categories and Ranking

Amazon CloudWatch
Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability
11th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
45
Ranking in other categories
Log Management (13th), Cloud Monitoring Software (9th)
Prometheus
Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability
8th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
34
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Featured Reviews

Rasanpreet Singh - PeerSpot reviewer
Reliable AWS monitoring and logging
The choice of logging solution should always be determined by the specific business requirements. It is crucial to align the logging strategy with what type of logs are needed and how they should be used. There are instances where we require custom solutions to retrieve logs, especially application logs that may not be easily accessible through CloudWatch or similar services. When we heavily rely on AWS native services, CloudWatch is indeed a robust choice. However, in certain scenarios, we might need integration capabilities with other tools, and if they can incorporate such features, it would enhance overall logging capabilities. I would rate it eight out of ten.
MuhammadAzhar Khan - PeerSpot reviewer
Free to use and provides valuable monitoring capabilities
Prometheus is a scalable and flexible tool that I can deploy on any cloud platform. It is free to use and provides valuable monitoring capabilities. It allows me to save money by avoiding costs associated with AWS native services like CloudWatch or Amazon Prometheus. The ability to deploy on any cloud platform or environment, including Kubernetes, is a major advantage.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
18%
Financial Services Firm
17%
Manufacturing Company
8%
University
5%
Financial Services Firm
26%
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon CloudWatch?
In general, Amazon CloudWatch is cheaper compared to Dynatrace. However, there are potential costs to be mindful of, like running a log query that returns trillions of bytes of data.
What needs improvement with Amazon CloudWatch?
CloudWatch itself is fine. That said, maybe Amazon Web Services can improve by providing a library for CloudWatch with some useful features.
What do you like most about Prometheus?
The most valuable feature of Prometheus is its ability to collect metrics.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Prometheus?
Prometheus is cost-effective for me as it is free. Using cloud-native alternatives like Amazon Prometheus would incur charges.
What is your primary use case for Prometheus?
I use Prometheus for monitoring purposes in IT infrastructure. It is particularly useful for environments using Kubernetes, as it monitors ports, containers, instances, and applications effectively.
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

AirAsia, Airbnb, Aircel, APUS, Avazu, Casa & Video, Futbol Club Barcelona (FCBarcelona), National Taiwan University, redBus
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Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon CloudWatch vs. Prometheus and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
831,881 professionals have used our research since 2012.