Graphite
Graphite is free, open-source software for storing numeric time-series data and generating graphs on demand.
What Graphite is
Graphite is free, open-source software for storing numeric time-series data and generating graphs on demand. Teams use it to monitor websites, applications, business services, and networked servers. Its components divide the work: Carbon receives measurements, Whisper stores them, and graphite-web renders graphs and dashboards. Carbon accepts plaintext, Pickle, and AMQP submissions. Graphite can return graphs or data as raw images, CSV, XML, and JSON, making outputs suitable for pages and dashboards. Dashboards can show multiple graphs over one time range and be saved. Retention and precision are set ahead of time through storage schemas; the documented default keeps two hours of minutely data. Graphite supports retention policies, horizontal scaling, a web interface, an API, Linux, and self-hosted deployment. Native Windows support is unavailable, although Docker or Vagrant can run it there. LDAP authentication is optional and needs an additional dependency. It is released under Apache 2.0.
Good
- Free under the Apache 2.0 license
- Accepts plaintext, Pickle, and AMQP data
- Outputs raw images, CSV, XML, and JSON
- Supports saved multi-graph dashboards
- Offers retention policies and horizontal scaling
Watch out
- Native Windows support is unsupported
- Retention and precision require advance schemas
- LDAP authentication needs an extra dependency
Who it suits
Graphite suits teams monitoring websites, applications, services, or networked servers that want open-source, self-hosted software. It fits users working with its supported ingestion methods and Graphite Render API expressions.
Verdict
Graphite combines self-hosted time-series storage with on-demand graphing, dashboards, and several data formats. Its deployment and retention configuration require planning, especially outside Linux-like environments.
The facts
Each one read from Graphite's own pages, with the date it was checked.
What it does
- Components
- Graphite consists of Carbon for receiving time-series data, Whisper for storing it, and graphite-web for rendering graphs and dashboards.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Dashboards
- The dashboard interface displays multiple graphs over a shared time range and supports saved dashboards.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Data formats
- Graphite can return graphs and data as raw images, CSV, XML, and JSON.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Data ingestion
- Carbon supports plaintext, Pickle, and AMQP methods for sending data.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Deployment
- The installation documentation offers a Docker command and lists a UNIX-like operating system among Graphite’s basic requirements.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Integrations
- Documented collection tools include collectd, Diamond, Telegraf, and StatsD-compatible tools.checked 11 Oct 2026
- License
- Graphite is released under the Apache 2.0 open-source license.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Origin
- Graphite was designed and written by Chris Davis at Orbitz in 2006 as a side project.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Output formats
- Graphite can output graphs as raw images, CSV, XML, and JSON for embedding in pages or dashboards.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Purpose
- Graphite stores numeric time-series data and renders graphs on demand for monitoring websites, applications, business services, and networked servers.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Retention
- Data retention and precision are configured in advance through storage schemas; the documentation says the default schema stores two hours of minutely data.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Security feature
- The installation documentation lists LDAP authentication as an optional web application feature requiring an additional dependency.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Support
- The project directs users to Stack Exchange community support, official documentation, or GitHub issues.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Use cases
- Teams use Graphite to track performance of websites, applications, business services, and networked servers.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Who it serves
- The project describes teams using Graphite to monitor websites, applications, business services, and networked servers.checked 11 Oct 2026
The company
- Founded
- 2006checked 28 Sep 2026
Where it runs
- Windows support
- Native Graphite on Windows is unsupported; the documentation describes running it on Windows through Docker or a Vagrant virtual machine.checked 11 Oct 2026
Alternatives to Graphite
- 1
TDengine
Free planOpen sourceWebAPILinuxmacOS8.3Free plan - 2
Amazon Timestream
Free planWebAPILinuxmacOS7.9Free plan - 3
Apache IoTDB
Free planOpen sourceWebAPILinuxmacOS7.7Free plan - 4
InfluxDB
Free planWebAPILinuxmacOS7.4$0.01 usage-based - 5
VictoriaMetrics
Free planWebAPILinuxmacOS7.4From $200 a month - 6
LinDB
Free planWebAPILinuxmacOS6.9Free plan