Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Azure Monitor vs Grafana comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 24, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

Azure Monitor
Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability
4th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
54
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Monitoring Software (5th)
Grafana
Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability
6th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
42
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category, the mindshare of Azure Monitor is 7.5%, down from 8.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Grafana is 6.4%, up from 5.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability
 

Featured Reviews

Syed Abid  - PeerSpot reviewer
Monthly and weekly resource monitoring has improved efficiency
Azure Monitor can improve by adding some kind of storage for logs. I can get the runtime logs alone, yet if Azure Monitor can independently add one gigabyte, two gigabytes, or five gigabytes at least to log storage, I can fix the logs without syncing with Log Analytics Workspace and Sentinel. If they do that, and if they can integrate a little pricing adjustment, it will be profitable for the Microsoft tool.
Vikash-Agarwal - PeerSpot reviewer
Displays data visually from multiple sources while integrating seamlessly with existing systems
Grafana provides a user-friendly interface for viewing infrastructure metrics through dashboards. It integrates with Prometheus to pull data and offers a straightforward setup process. Users can monitor metrics with greater ease, and the tool aids in quickly identifying issues by providing a visual representation of data. Grafana's integration capability is straightforward, which facilitates building dashboards as needed.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Azure Monitor is a very easy-to-use product in the cloud environment."
"In the last company where I worked about a year ago, it looked very simple."
"The most valuable feature is that it's stable. It hasn't crossed any thresholds."
"The dashboard allows us to easily track various metrics and quickly understand the overall health of our system."
"Data exporting is easy, and this tool works seamlessly with other solutions. It's a stable and low-priced solution."
"Azure Monitor is really just a source for Dynatrace. It's just collecting data and monitoring the environment and the infrastructure. It is fairly good at that."
"Azure Monitor's best features are its graphs and charts, the different visibility options, and reporting."
"The initial setup is straightforward."
"The integration between Loki and Tempo is valuable."
"Provides good dashboard visualization."
"What I found most valuable in Grafana is that it has a lot of integrations and features that I need for data processing and visualization."
"Grafana is stable and has great engineers."
"The most valuable thing was that it had a good visualization tool."
"The best thing about Grafana is the visualization. The colors and the ease of use make it very user-friendly."
"Grafana is a very scalable product. It's a really good product."
"I find Grafana beneficial due to its numerous plugins."
 

Cons

"It might not have all of the capabilities we will need."
"In terms of pricing, Azure Monitor's billing based on data size can sometimes lead to increased costs, especially when developers need to purge data frequently. While there are mechanisms in place to track and manage this, there is room for improvement in terms of optimizing data pausing and related processes. Enhancements in this area could help mitigate potential billing concerns and provide a more seamless experience for users."
"They need to work on a more hybrid deployment that will allow us to monitor local on-premise deployments and connect to different systems. I would like to see more integration."
"They need to work with other cloud providers - not just Azure."
"We cannot use AI services with the solution."
"If it is configured incorrectly, you can end up with a huge bill."
"n comparison to New Relic, which I've used before, it's a bit more complicated. It's not as easy to use. It also took some time to get it working. The implementation needs to be simpler."
"Enhancing and reaching a level of detail that facilitates pinpointing and addressing issues at such a refined level within the application and database components would be helpful."
"The interface is not well-liked by my customers. Grafana cannot be easily embedded into certain applications and offers limited customization options for graphs."
"Its interface could be more accessible."
"If there was an issue on one node, we couldn't drill down and see all the issues on other nodes."
"It's difficult to see the trends on the graph when the range is too long."
"There are some areas of network drives that are not showing as expected based on server usage."
"Its UI features to create charts can also be improved. Some features could have a link to the documentation."
"It can take a considerable amount of time to learn the graphs if a long duration is selected."
"The documentation or training provided by Grafana is limited compared to its competitors, like Splunk."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution’s pricing depends on how much logs it collects."
"The tool's pricing is very good. I could say that Microsoft offers different cost models, which are listed on the product's website."
"The Azure Insight is a little bit expensive."
"Azure Monitor's price is minimal to the point of being almost negligible."
"The tool is expensive."
"The solution is expensive, but it is worth the price."
"Azure Monitor is one of the more cost effective solutions on the market."
"Besides standard licensing fees the customer needs to additionally pay based on the ingested data size"
"For me, Grafana is a cheap tool because I don't have to spend much time learning the product since it is a simple solution."
"We use the open-source version of Grafana."
"We are using the open-source license."
"You need to purchase the solution's license for its commercial use."
"My company uses the open-source version of Grafana, so it's free."
"I use the open source model so it is free."
"​Grafana is free and open source.​"
"The solution is expensive."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability solutions are best for your needs.
844,944 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
7%
Financial Services Firm
21%
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Retailer
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

How does Splunk compare with Azure Monitor?
Splunk handles a high amount of data very well. We use Splunk to capture information and as an aggregator for monitoring information from different sources. Splunk is very good at alerting us if we...
What do you like most about Azure Monitor?
Azure Monitor is a very easy-to-use product in the cloud environment.
What needs improvement with Azure Monitor?
Azure Monitor can improve by adding some kind of storage for logs. I can get the runtime logs alone, yet if Azure Monitor can independently add one gigabyte, two gigabytes, or five gigabytes at lea...
What do you like most about Grafana?
The product's initial setup phase was very easy.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Grafana?
I used the open-source version for my learning, which was free. In an enterprise setting, pricing is reasonable, as many customers use it.
What needs improvement with Grafana?
The interface is not well-liked by my customers. Grafana cannot be easily embedded into certain applications and offers limited customization options for graphs. I think predictive capabilities in ...
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Rackspace, First Gas, Allscripts, ABB Group
Microsoft, Adobe, Optum, Sky, Nvidia, Roblox, Wells Fargo, BlackRock, Informatica, Maersk, Daimler Truck, SNCF, Atlassian, DHL, SAP, JPMorgan Chase, Cisco, Citi and many others.
Find out what your peers are saying about Azure Monitor vs. Grafana and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
844,944 professionals have used our research since 2012.