Google Cloud&#39;s operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) vs Grafana comparison

Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) vs. Grafana

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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

Google Cloud's operations s...

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

30th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Log Management (24th), Cloud Monitoring Software (16th)

Grafana

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

7th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category, the mindshare of Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) is 0.9%, down from 1.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Grafana is 2.5%, down from 5.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Grafana	2.5%
Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver)	0.9%
Other	96.6%

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

Featured Reviews

Anand_Patel

Senior Technical Architect at T-Systems International GmbH

Offers reliable Ops Agent and logging transport feature with easy third-party integrations

As part of our company, we implemented several changes in our log analytics pattern, including the storage and procurement process. Earlier, before implementing the solution, our company was able to procure only one year of data, but later, we came to the three-year mark. Around 15-20% reduction has been witnessed in the total analytic consumption of our company. The aforementioned result was possible because the solution allowed the creation of a dashboard where factors like storage costs, proportion of logs, and logs presence in a storage bucket or Big Query can all be checked. Earlier all logs were stored in a raw storage, but currently our company is able to move logs in table bucket that contributes towards cost savings. It has default integration for all gcp services. recently managed Prometheus support gives more flexibility to organizations to remain connected with their current Prometheus setup. We leveraged integrated FinOps Hub for recommendations for our workloads and server configurations, helpd us lot in order to get maximum TCO.

Read full review

Vitthal Gole

Devops Engineer at AIQOD

Proactive monitoring has transformed how our teams detect issues and resolve incidents faster

For improving Grafana, the alert configuration could be more intuitive for new users. Dashboard management becomes complex in large environments. So if we have multiple environments and we have to manage our dashboards for them, sometimes it becomes complicated to manage all the dashboards. The learning curve is steep for beginners. More built-in reporting and analytics features would be helpful. Documentation for advanced features could be more detailed. Role-based access management could be simpler to configure. Performance could be optimized for very large dashboards with high cardinality data sources. Grafana could improve its alert configuration workflow and make advanced dashboard management easier for new users. More built-in reporting features would also be beneficial. A simpler onboarding experience for first-time users and more built-in dashboard templates for common monitoring scenarios would be helpful. Grafana is a powerful monitoring platform, but it could improve dashboard organization in large environments, simplify alert management, provide more built-in reporting capabilities, enhance plugin compatibility during upgrades, and offer better AI-driven insights for fast root cause analysis. For example, if we are hitting a CPU metric of ninety to ninety-five percent or a system load of seventy to eighty percent, we have to act on that. But if Grafana suggests something on that metric, such as an AI suggestion, it would be more helpful. We could get an idea of how to solve that issue. For the Grafana dashboards, they could provide more built-in compliance and audit reporting, enhance AI recommendations with clearer explanations of why an issue was flagged, enhance accessibility and keyboard navigation, add more native integrations with emerging cloud and DevOps tools, and improve scalability for very large enterprise deployments. Grafana is a mature platform, but it could benefit from better dashboard version control, simpler environment migration, enhanced AI explanations, more built-in reporting, and improved performance for large-scale deployments with complex dashboards.

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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

"The features that I have found most valuable are its graphs - if I need any statistics, in Kubernetes or Kong level or VPN level, I can quickly get the reports."

"We find the solution to be stable."

"The solution has improved our organization by reducing latency and also monitoring the costs of GCP usage by using the logging and monitoring features."

"The most valuable feature is the multi-cloud integration, where there is support for both GCP and AWS."

"Google Stackdriver is all about activity."

"It has really been helpful in detecting, identifying, and troubleshooting issues with cloud services used in the organization."

"It's easy to use."

"I would tell potential users that the current version is much nicer than the previous one."

More Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) pros

"The most important feature of Grafana is its alarm formatting capability."

"The dashboards are the most valuable features."

"The most valuable aspect is customization. There are many customizations possible, so I like that."

"The dashboards are very easy to work with."

"Grafana is able to connect with multiple data sources, unlike Elasticsearch."

"The solution has good features."

"The solution can scale well."

"Grafana is a very scalable product. It's a really good product."

More Grafana pros

Cons

"If I want to track any round-trip or breakdowns of my response times, I'm not able to get it."

"It could be even more automated."

"If I want to track any round-trip or breakdowns of my response times, I'm not able to get it. My request goes through various levels of the Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and comes back to my client machine. Suppose that my request has taken 10 seconds overall, so if I want to break it down, to see where the delay is happening within my architecture, I am not able to find that out using Stackdriver."

"While we are satisfied with the overall performance, in certain cases we must add additional metrics and additional tools like Grafana and Dynatrace."

"The logging functionality could be better."

"Lacking sufficient operations documentation."

"It could be more stable."

"The process of logging analytics can be improved"

More Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) cons

"The solution has room for improvement with a better API to help automate the construction of the dashboards easier."

"More dashboard is required, out-of-the-box, for OpenNMS."

"Grafana could improve by having its own query language. Currently, it uses languages like Prometheus or InfluxDB, which not everyone knows. Their query language should be easier."

"The service dashboard is very hard and needs improvement."

"Lacks in-depth graphs and sufficient AI."

"The main drawback is the necessity for endpoint monitoring."

"They should improve the functioning of its editing tool."

"Its interface could be more accessible."

More Grafana cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The cost could be lower."

"The cost of using Stackdriver depends on usage."

"We have a basic standard license without any additional costs."

"I use the open source model so it is free."

"Grafana is free and open source."

"You need to purchase the solution's license for its commercial use."

"I am using an open-source version"

"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."

"It's free of cost; it operates as an open-source tool."

"We are using the open-source license."

"I give the price an eight out of ten."

More Grafana 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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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

12%

Comms Service Provider

12%

Construction Company

11%

Outsourcing Company

Financial Services Firm

15%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Computer Software Company

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	2
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	9

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	14
Midsize Enterprise	10
Large Enterprise	27

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Google Stackdriver?

As Ops Suite, is a google product which effectively comes at zero setup cost, in order to manage your on-premises logs on onsite, it involves negligible cost for using ops agent and it also include...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Grafana?

We are using the community edition. We have used the community edition, the open-source edition. So, there were no licensing costs. The setup was straightforward, and the main investment was the ti...

What needs improvement with Grafana?

What is your primary use case for Grafana?

The main use case for Grafana is that we are using Prometheus to collect the metrics, and primarily use Grafana for infrastructure and application monitoring. It helps me visualize system metrics t...

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Product Reports

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

Download Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) product report

Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) report

Grafana

Download Grafana product report

Also Known As

Google Stackdriver, Stackdriver, Stackdriver Monitoring, Stackdriver Logging, Google Cloud Monitoring

No data available

Overview

Google Cloud's operations suite is a comprehensive toolset offering multi-cloud support, insights into performance, uptime, health, and scalable logging for seamless cloud operations.

This suite by Google Cloud provides robust features for organizations managing workloads on GCP and AWS. It offers real-time logging and monitoring, aiding in efficient troubleshooting and performance analysis. With automatic monitoring, statistical insights for Kubernetes and VPNs, and the ability to manage logs, it helps in optimizing technology changes and supports risk management. Despite needs for better APM, cost clarity, migration tools, and enhanced documentation, companies benefit from its capabilities in tracking errors and analyzing metrics in execution environments.

What are the key features of Google Cloud's operations suite?

Multi-cloud Integration: Seamless support for GCP and AWS environments.
Performance Visibility: Insights into system health and uptime.
Scalable Logging: Efficient log management and export capabilities.
User-friendly Interface: Intuitive interaction for easy monitoring configuration.

What benefits and ROI can be expected from Google Cloud's operations suite?

Enhanced Monitoring: Real-time updates facilitate swift response to performance issues.
Efficient Troubleshooting: Detailed log analysis helps resolve code issues quickly.
Performance Analysis: Dashboards support engineering load testing and SLA monitoring.

Industries utilizing Google Cloud's operations suite find it invaluable for optimizing cloud operations, especially in sectors involving extensive database requests and workload execution. Java and Python teams leverage its logging and alert capabilities for improved error tracking and metrics analysis, crucial for maintaining high-performance standards in tech-driven environments.

Google

Grafana offers a customizable, user-friendly platform for robust data visualization and integration, enhancing real-time monitoring with extensive alerting and collaboration capabilities supported by an active open-source community.

Grafana stands out for its flexible dashboards and robust visualization options, integrating smoothly with tools like Prometheus. This open-source platform supports diverse environments, aiding in the visualization of IT infrastructure and business analytics. Its alerting system efficiently supports real-time monitoring. While it is praised for its community backing and cost-effectiveness, there is demand for better data aggregation, intuitive interfaces, and enhanced documentation compared to competitors such as Splunk. Simplification of configuration and the interface is sought, alongside improvements in machine learning and reporting features.

What are Grafana's most important features?

Customizable Dashboards: User-friendly, richly customizable dashboards for precise data presentation.
Visualization Capabilities: Strong support for visualizing complex datasets from multiple sources.
Integration Options: Extensive compatibility with data sources and tools like Prometheus.
Alerting System: Efficient real-time monitoring and issue identification.
Open-Source Nature: Supported by a vibrant community, offering a cost-effective solution.

What benefits or ROI should users seek in Grafana reviews?

Adaptability: Supports diverse environments and use cases.
Cost-Effectiveness: Offers valuable features at a competitive price.
Community Support: Backed by an active and vibrant open-source community.
Collaborative Platform: Seamless integration with various data tools refining monitoring and analytics efforts.

Grafana is implemented widely across industries for monitoring IT infrastructure and visualizing business analytics. Companies utilize it to analyze server performance or monitor Kubernetes environments and payment transactions. The platform integrates with AWS services and other data sources to ensure observability and system health tracking, focusing on performance metrics through customized dashboards and alerts. Organizations employ Grafana to bolster observability and optimize infrastructure through robust data insights.

Grafana Labs

Sample Customers

Uber, Batterii, Q42, Dovetail Games

Microsoft, Adobe, Optum, Sky, Nvidia, Roblox, Wells Fargo, BlackRock, Informatica, Maersk, Daimler Truck, SNCF, Atlassian, DHL, SAP, JPMorgan Chase, Cisco, Citi and many others.

Google Cloud's operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) vs. Grafana