Parca
Parca is an open-source profiling system that continuously collects, stores, and makes CPU, memory, I/O, and other profiles available for querying over time.
What Parca is
Parca is an open-source profiling system that continuously collects, stores, and makes CPU, memory, I/O, and other profiles available for querying over time. Parca Agent uses eBPF to capture user-space and kernel-space stack traces. Profiles can be sent over gRPC or collected from targets through HTTP, and Parca accepts valid pprof-formatted profiles. Its query engine supports label selectors and comparisons across dimensions such as processes or code versions. The web UI can query profiles and visualize them with Icicle Graphs; a Grafana plugin can display profiles stored in Parca. Automatic profiling covers languages including C, C++, Go, Rust, Java, Node.js, Python, Ruby, PHP, and .NET, among others. The project describes sampling profiling as suitable for continuous production use and reports observed Agent overhead below 1% CPU and below 200 Mb memory, depending on active targets. Parca says it receives profiling statistics and function-name metadata, not binaries or source code. It is self-hosted, and its components are available under Apache 2 License.
Good
- Accepts valid pprof profiles.
- Supports gRPC push and HTTP pull collection.
- Provides label-based queries and dimension comparisons.
- Grafana plugin can visualize stored profiles.
- Says it receives metadata, not binaries or source code.
Watch out
- Agent requires Linux kernel 4.18 or newer.
- Agent needs privileged access to load eBPF programs.
- Deployment is self-hosted.
Who it suits
Parca suits teams seeking continuous sampling profiles for CPU, memory, I/O, and other behavior, with querying through its web interface or Grafana. It is aimed at Linux users able to grant the Agent privileged kernel access.
Verdict
Parca offers a broad profiling workflow, from eBPF collection to querying and visualization. Check the Linux kernel and privileged-access requirements before using its Agent.
Plans and prices
From Parca's own pricing page, checked 7 Oct 2026.
| Plan | Price | What it gives you |
|---|---|---|
| Parca Open Source | Free | Open source; components available under Apache 2 License |
The facts
Each one read from Parca's own pages, with the date it was checked.
What it does
- Agent
- Parca Agent is an eBPF-based whole-system profiler.checked 7 Oct 2026
- Analysis
- Parca supports label-selector queries, a profiling-specific query engine, and comparisons across label dimensions such as processes or code versions.checked 7 Oct 2026
- Commercial API
- The project identifies Polar Signals as the only commercial provider of Parca-compatible APIs, through Polar Signals Cloud.checked 7 Oct 2026
- Data collection
- Profiles can be pushed to Parca through gRPC or pulled from targets through HTTP.checked 7 Oct 2026
- Data handling
- Parca says it receives profiling statistics and function-name metadata, not users’ binaries or source code.checked 7 Oct 2026
- Deployment
- The project documents installation using binaries, containers, Kubernetes, and Snaps.checked 7 Oct 2026
- Features
- Features include a multi-dimensional data model, label-selector queries, a profiling-specific query engine, built-in storage, and support for pushing and pulling profiles.checked 7 Oct 2026
- Grafana
- Profiles stored in Parca can be visualized using the Grafana plugin.checked 7 Oct 2026
- Integration
- A Grafana plugin can visualize profiles stored in Parca.checked 7 Oct 2026
- Languages
- The agent’s automatic profiling supports languages including C, C++, Rust, Go, Ruby, Node.js, Python, Java, .NET, Perl, and PHP.checked 7 Oct 2026
- Open source
- Parca’s components are available under the Apache 2 License.checked 7 Oct 2026
- Overhead
- The FAQ reports observed Agent overhead of less than 1% CPU and less than 200 Mb memory, depending on the number of actively profiled targets.checked 7 Oct 2026
- Product
- Parca continuously collects, stores, and makes CPU, memory, I/O, and other profiles available for querying over time.checked 7 Oct 2026
- Profiler
- Parca Agent uses eBPF to capture user-space and kernel-space stack traces with low overhead.checked 7 Oct 2026
- Profiling
- Parca focuses on sampling profiling, which the project says can run continuously in production with very little overhead.checked 7 Oct 2026
- Security
- The project says the Agent source is open source, it is written in Go, and its binaries and container images are fully reproducible; the Agent needs privileged access to load eBPF programs.checked 7 Oct 2026
- Support
- Polar Signals offers paid support for users of Parca’s open-source project.checked 7 Oct 2026
- Supported formats
- Parca supports any valid pprof-formatted profile.checked 7 Oct 2026
- Visualization
- Parca’s web UI can query profiles and visualize them using Icicle Graphs, described as upside-down Flame Graphs.checked 7 Oct 2026
Where it runs
- Linux requirement
- The quick start says the Parca Agent binary works only on Linux.checked 7 Oct 2026
The company
- Maker
- Polar Signals says it was founded in 2020.checked 7 Oct 2026
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