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LibreNMS vs Prometheus: Pricing and Ratings Compared (2026)

Entry prices and free plans as read on each vendor's pricing page, and user ratings as published on review sites, for LibreNMS and Prometheus side by side. This page compares data; it is not a hands-on review.

On the data: On the data below the two are close or not directly comparable, so we do not name a winner for this pair.

Data comparison compiled by Toolradar, not hand-reviewed Methodology
Data comparison 75 user reviews compared Pricing checked Oct 2, 2026

Short on time? Here's the quick answer

Based on published vendor pricing and features and on public review data, here's who should pick what:

LibreNMS

Automated network discovery, monitoring, and alerting for your entire infrastructure.

Best for you if:

  • • You want open-source and free to use

Prometheus

Monitoring and alerting toolkit

Best for you if:

  • • You want industry standard
At a glance: LibreNMS vs Prometheus
At a Glance
LibreNMS LibreNMS
Prometheus Prometheus
Starts at
Free 100% free
Free 100% free
Category
Monitoring DevOps
DevOps Monitoring
Rating
4.7/5 G2 4.7 14 reviews 4.5/5 G2 4.5 61 reviews
Free plan
Yes Yes
Watch out for
n/a Storage costs grow linearly with metric cardinality and retention period

Choose LibreNMS or Prometheus?

LibreNMS

Choose LibreNMS if

  • You want open-source and free to use
  • You want comprehensive automatic network discovery
  • You work in monitoring, not DevOps
Prometheus

Choose Prometheus if

  • You want industry standard
  • You want great for metrics
  • You work in DevOps, not monitoring

In-Depth Analysis

LibreNMS LibreNMS

Automated network discovery, monitoring, and alerting for your entire infrastructure.

Strengths

  • Pro: Open-source and free to use
  • Pro: Comprehensive automatic network discovery
  • Pro: Highly flexible and customizable alerting
  • Pro: Scalable architecture with distributed polling
  • Pro: Strong community support and active development

Weaknesses

  • Con: Requires self-hosting and technical expertise for setup and maintenance
  • Con: No official commercial support plans mentioned (community-driven)
  • Con: Mobile app mentioned by a third-party, not directly by LibreNMS

Key features

Automatic network discovery (CDP, FDP, LLDP, OSPF, BGP, SNMP, ARP) Customizable alerting system (email, IRC, Slack) Full API access for management, graphing, and data retrieval Billing system for bandwidth usage on network ports Automatic updates for bug fixes and new features Distributed polling for horizontal scaling

Prometheus Prometheus

Monitoring and alerting toolkit

Great value

Prometheus is 100% free and open source (Apache 2.0).

Watch out

Storage costs grow linearly with metric cardinality and retention period

Strengths

  • Pro: Industry standard
  • Pro: Great for metrics
  • Pro: Open source

Weaknesses

  • Con: Long-term storage
  • Con: Learning curve

Key features

Monitoring Time series PromQL Alerting CNCF Open source

Plans and prices: LibreNMS vs Prometheus

Plans and prices of LibreNMS and Prometheus, as read on each vendor's pricing page. Each plan keeps its own billing unit.
Tool Plans and prices Source
LibreNMS No plan prices on file librenms.org
Prometheus
  • Free: Free
prometheus.io read Oct 2, 2026

Prices as read on each vendor's own pricing page on the date shown. Plans are listed per tool and are not matched against the other tool's plans: a plan name or price in one column says nothing about the same row in the other. Details on LibreNMS pricing and Prometheus pricing.

Key Takeaways

LibreNMS

  • Choose if you want automated network discovery, monitoring, and alerting for your entire infrastructure

Prometheus

  • Choose if you want monitoring and alerting toolkit

What the data shows

On the data below the two are close or not directly comparable, so we do not name a winner for this pair.

  • User ratings rest on too few reviews to rank (4.7/5 from 14 reviews for LibreNMS, 4.5/5 from 61 reviews for Prometheus; we compare ratings only above 20 reviews on both sides).
  • Both have a free plan.

Criteria: user rating (only above 20 reviews on both sides, gap of 0.2 or more), entry price (only on the same billing basis), free plan. How we rate

Frequently Asked Questions

How do LibreNMS and Prometheus compare in 2026?

On the data below the two are close or not directly comparable, so we do not name a winner for this pair. User ratings rest on too few reviews to rank (4.7/5 from 14 reviews for LibreNMS, 4.5/5 from 61 reviews for Prometheus; we compare ratings only above 20 reviews on both sides). Both have a free plan.

What are LibreNMS and Prometheus used for?

LibreNMS: Automated network discovery, monitoring, and alerting for your entire infrastructure. Prometheus: Monitoring and alerting toolkit.

What does LibreNMS cost vs Prometheus?

LibreNMS is free. Prometheus is free. Prices read on the vendors' pricing pages, latest check Oct 2, 2026.

What's the main difference between LibreNMS and Prometheus?

LibreNMS's main strength: open-source and free to use. Prometheus's main strength: industry standard.

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