M3 vs Prometheus
M3 and Prometheus are both database software. M3 is open source under Apache-2.0, with 4.9k GitHub stars. Prometheus is open source under Apache-2.0, with 67k GitHub stars.
Which to pick
- Pick M3 when
- You run Prometheus at very large scale and need horizontally scalable long-term metrics storage.
- Pick Prometheus when
- You run services or Kubernetes and need metrics and alerting with the de facto standard toolset.
Side by side
Uber's metrics platform: a distributed time-series database, aggregator and query engine usable as long-term Prometheus storage and Graphite-compatible backend.
A monitoring system and time-series database that scrapes metrics from services, queries them with PromQL and sends alerts.
Complex to operate, and development has slowed; many teams choose Thanos, Mimir or VictoriaMetrics instead.
Long-term storage and high availability need extra components such as Thanos or Mimir.
Usable
Production-ready
Self-hosted server (both)
Go and etcd
Go
Open source, Apache-2.0 (permissive) (both)
You can build it into a product you sell, as long as you keep its copyright notice. (both)
4.9k GitHub stars
67k GitHub stars
Established: started 10 years ago, latest release v1.6.0.
Established: started 14 years ago, latest release v3.15.1.
Other comparisons
More databases
Both sides were judged on 2026-11-03 from each project's README and GitHub data. License, age and popularity lines are worked out directly.