Azure Monitor vs Prometheus comparison

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Azure Monitor

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 24, 2024

Azure Monitor and Prometheus are tools used for monitoring and observability. Prometheus seems to have the upper hand with its advanced features and customization.

Features: Azure Monitor is known for its integration with other Azure services, comprehensive log analytics, and robust pricing and support. Prometheus is recognized for its powerful query capabilities, flexibility, and advanced features.

Room for Improvement: Azure Monitor users seek enhanced alert management, improved data granularity, and refined alerting. Prometheus users desire better scalability, easier setup processes, and user-friendly setup improvements.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Azure Monitor deployment is straightforward within the Azure ecosystem, supported by efficient customer service. Prometheus requires more intricate setup but benefits from strong community-driven support.

Pricing and ROI: Azure Monitor's pricing is perceived as higher but justified with integrated support. Prometheus, being open-source, offers lower upfront costs with a scalable ROI based on customization efforts.

To learn more, read our detailed Azure Monitor vs. Prometheus Report (Updated: December 2024).

Azure Monitor vs. Prometheus

December 2024

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Helped 824,053 peers since 2012

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

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Monitoring Software (5th)

Prometheus

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

8th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2024, in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category, the mindshare of Azure Monitor is 9.7%, up from 9.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Prometheus is 3.3%, down from 3.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

Featured Reviews

Swapan Biswas

Associate Consultant at Tata Consultancy

A powerful Kusto query language but the alerting mechanism needs improvement

Alerts cannot be configured to monitor at a certain point in time. For example, we might want to alert people at zero hours but that is not possible. Splunk can accomplish this and its alerts are far better than the solution's options. The alerting mechanism is not up to the market. The default interface should be improved. You can prepare your own dashboard by using custom query language, but the default interface is not good.

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Noam Blidstein

Head of Global IT Operations at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees

A very flexible open box that can be used vastly to do anything you need

Make sure that you have dedicated manpower to configure and manage the solution. It requires handling, not necessarily on a daily basis, but it definitely requires someone who is focused and has expertise with the solution. Know in advance what you want to gain from the solution. Don't jump in to configuring or deploying before knowing what you expect from it. I like the solution very much. I think it is a major tool, especially in advanced environments. The open box provides a lot of flexibility and gives a very holistic view of the entire Kubernetes environment. Integrating with the Rancher management tool gives the solution even more abilities. There are several tools that we use behind the scenes to ease the process but the solution on its own is a very good tool. I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I use the solution to monitor the infrastructure and applications."

"The most valuable feature is that it's stable. It hasn't crossed any thresholds."

"Data exporting is easy, and this tool works seamlessly with other solutions. It's a stable and low-priced solution."

"The solution integrates well with the Microsoft platform."

"Technical support is helpful."

"It allows you to set thresholds on the metrics and receive alerts."

"It has good troubleshooting features."

"The dashboard allows us to easily track various metrics and quickly understand the overall health of our system."

More Azure Monitor pros

"The most valuable feature is that we can receive information in different formats."

"The sky is the limit because the solution is a flexible open box that can be used vastly to do anything you need to monitor applications."

"The product's initial setup phase is very easy."

"The scalability of Prometheus is very good."

"It is a stable solution...Based on the feedback I have received from my colleagues in our company's IT department, the setup phase of the solution is relatively easy."

"Prometheus is a great solution for monitoring."

"The most valuable features of Prometheus are the many functions available. The functions are helpful for understanding the behavior of applications and infrastructure."

"The product is easy to maintain."

More Prometheus pros

Cons

"The onboarding process of certain assets and the overall UI can be improved in Azure Monitor"

"I believe Azure Monitor is already a top-notch solution with excellent functionality and there is not much I would suggest for improvement. However, there is one limitation that certain features require payment, even for testing purposes, which can be a challenge."

"When something goes down, we want the option to have automation in place to get it back up again as quickly as possible."

"have used multiple products like Webex and PRTG. Some features could be added. Azure Monitor should add SMS and APIs. We have very limited access to Azure Monitor. I usually get alerts on my phone when they are integrated with Slack. I am not always available, but my team is. Sometimes, I am traveling and don't have access to my email, but I have Slack and other third-party projects that send me instant messages if a sensor goes down."

"Setting up this solution is complex. It's also missing the functionality of assigning alerts."

"Azure Monitor could improve the visualization aspect and integrate better with other third-party services."

"This solution could be improved with more out-of-the-box functionalities and artificial intelligence to complete event correlation."

"Integration with third-party tools from other vendors than Azure is more time-consuming"

More Azure Monitor cons

"The interface is not particularly user-friendly and that could be improved."

"The setup process could be more straightforward."

"The setup could be made easier for new users because it requires a bit of advance knowledge or experience."

"The query language in Prometheus is an area of concern where improvements are required."

"When it comes to deployment, if you have no experience with something like a CI/CD pipeline, it might be a challenge."

"The DSL could be improved."

"Prometheus' UI color can improve. Using the Prometheus UI for configuration or analyzing queries is a horrible experience."

"There isn’t much clarity regarding the issues that happen at the server end. It is a push model and from the client’s point of view, it needs to look better and solve remote issues."

More Prometheus cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is a pay-as-you-go consumption service and is the least expensive in the market."

"Besides standard licensing fees the customer needs to additionally pay based on the ingested data size"

"The solution is very costly because you have to pay for various things such as adding to logs and internet alerts."

"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 price of the solution is reasonable."

"The cost of Azure Monitor application performance should be less expensive."

"Azure Monitor is a competitively priced solution."

"Azure Monitor is a low-priced solution, which is why it would work best on small-scale projects."

More Azure Monitor pricing and cost advice

"Prometheus is an open-source tool."

"Prometheus is an open-source solution."

"We have the open-source version, so we don't pay for it."

"The solution is free of cost."

"The solution is open source."

"The product is expensive compared to Datadog."

"Prometheus is an open-source solution."

"The product is free."

More Prometheus pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability solutions are best for your needs.

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824,053 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

26%

Computer Software Company

15%

Manufacturing Company

Government

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 could improve by adding capabilities for data observability and integrating more tightly with their data platform components.

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 an open-source tool.

What is your primary use case for Prometheus?

We use Prometheus for observability and analyzing data for business metrics and system metrics. It helps us with messaging services observability. It also helps a lot with the architecture and scal...

Dynatrace vs Azure Monitor

Comparisons

Datadog vs Azure Monitor

Compared 22% of the time

Sentry vs Azure Monitor

Compared 14% of the time

Compared 13% of the time

Grafana vs Azure Monitor

Compared 9% of the time

AWS X-Ray vs Azure Monitor

Compared 5% of the time

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Zabbix vs Prometheus

Compared 11% of the time

Dynatrace vs Prometheus

Compared 9% of the time

New Relic vs Prometheus

Compared 9% of the time

Apache SkyWalking vs Prometheus

Compared 7% of the time

Sentry vs Prometheus

Compared 7% of the time

More Prometheus Competitors

Product Reports

Download Azure Monitor product report

Azure Monitor

December 2024

Download Prometheus product report

November 2024

Learn More

Microsoft

Overview

Azure Monitor is a comprehensive monitoring solution offered by Microsoft Azure. It provides a centralized platform for monitoring the performance and health of various Azure resources, applications, and infrastructure.

With Azure Monitor, users can gain insights into the availability, performance, and usage of their applications and infrastructure. The key features of Azure Monitor include metrics, logs, alerts, and dashboards. Metrics allow users to collect and analyze performance data from various Azure resources, such as virtual machines, databases, and storage accounts.

Logs enable users to collect and analyze log data from different sources, including Azure resources, applications, and operating systems. Azure Monitor also provides a robust alerting mechanism that allows users to set up alerts based on specific conditions or thresholds. These alerts can be configured to notify users via email, SMS, or other notification channels. Additionally, Azure Monitor offers customizable dashboards that allow users to visualize and analyze their monitoring data in a personalized and intuitive manner.

Azure Monitor integrates seamlessly with other Azure services, such as Azure Automation and Azure Logic Apps, enabling users to automate actions based on monitoring data. It also supports integration with third-party monitoring tools and services, providing flexibility and extensibility.

Overall, Azure Monitor is a powerful and versatile monitoring solution that helps users gain deep insights into the performance and health of their Azure resources and applications. It offers a wide range of features and integrations, making it a comprehensive solution for monitoring and managing Azure environments.

Prometheus specializes in gathering, monitoring, and analyzing logs and metrics. Utilized for data visualization in Grafana, cloud deployments, Kubernetes monitoring, and financial transactions, it provides a comprehensive view of application performance.

Prometheus is widely adopted for its robust metrics collection and scraping capabilities. It integrates seamlessly with Grafana for detailed visualizations and supports installations in cloud environments like Azure and Amazon. Prometheus is especially valued for monitoring Kubernetes deployments and ensuring efficient operation of servers, databases, and microservices. Its open-source nature provides reliability, flexibility, and scalability. Users appreciate its extensive integrations, APIs, and libraries, supporting multiple languages. Prometheus also offers remote writing, dynamic conflict resolution, high availability, and lightweight configuration with detailed documentation.

What are the key features of Prometheus?

Extensive Integrations: Supports APIs and libraries across multiple languages
Metrics Collection: Efficiently handles large amounts of metrics
Scraping Capabilities: Effective data gathering from applications
HTTP Monitoring: Reliable and detailed tracking
Grafana Integration: Seamless dashboards and visualizations
High Availability: Ensures system reliability
Lightweight Configuration: User-friendly setup process
Robust Querying: Advanced data querying and long-term storage integration

What benefits should users look for in reviews?

Holistic Application Performance: Provides a comprehensive view
Scalability: Handles growing amounts of metrics
Flexibility: Adapts to various cloud and on-premises environments
Reliability: Ensures consistent performance
Detailed Documentation: Offers clear guidance for users

Prometheus is extensively used in industries requiring robust monitoring and alerting systems. Financial services leverage it for tracking transactions, while tech companies deploy it for Kubernetes and microservices monitoring. Its scalable and flexible nature makes it a preferred choice for cloud environments, supporting the efficient operation of infrastructure and applications.

Sample Customers

Rackspace, First Gas, Allscripts, ABB Group

Information Not Available