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Grafana Mimir vs Grafana Pyroscope

Grafana Mimir: Grafana Labs' horizontally scalable, multi-tenant long-term store for Prometheus and OTLP metrics. Grafana Pyroscope: Continuous profiling database that stores CPU and memory profiles over time on object storage.

key differences

  • Grafana Mimir is built for larger datasets (Multi-PB) than Grafana Pyroscope (≤ 1 PB).
  • Only Grafana Pyroscope has columnar storage.

choose grafana-mimir for

  • +Centralised multi-tenant metrics for many clusters
  • +Long-term Prometheus storage on object storage
  • +Platform teams offering metrics-as-a-service internally

best at · Observability, Time-series

choose grafana-pyroscope for

  • +Finding CPU and memory hot spots in production
  • +Comparing performance between releases
  • +Reducing cloud compute cost

best at · Observability

Grafana MimirGrafana Labs' horizontally scalable, multi-tenant long-term store for Prometheus and OTLP metrics.
Grafana PyroscopeContinuous profiling database that stores CPU and memory profiles over time on object storage.
overview
Primary model
Time-Series
Time-Series
Also supports
–
Columnar / OLAP
Type
Database engine
Database engine
Status
Active
Active
Developer
Grafana Labs
Grafana Labs
First release
2022
2021
Latest version
3.2.3 (Oct 22, 2026)
2.4.2 (Oct 26, 2026)
License
Open source (copyleft)GNU AGPL v3.0
Open source (copyleft)GNU AGPL v3.0
Free tier
✓
✓
popularity
WhichDB Score
15.8
12.7
Rank
#203
#263
GitHub stars
5.3K
11.7K
Stack Overflow questions
10
–
scale & guarantees
Comfortable data size
Massive (Multi-PB)
Large (≤ 1 PB)
Horizontal scaling
Native
Native
Multi-region
None
None
ACID
None
None
Consistency
Eventual
Eventual
Schema
Schemaless
Schemaless
Architecture
Distributed, Shared storage
Single node, Distributed, Shared storage
deployment
Self-hosted
✓
✓
Vendor-managed cloud
✓
✓
Serverless
—
—
Embedded
—
—
Edge
—
—
Clouds
AWS, Google Cloud, Azure
AWS, Google Cloud, Azure
capabilities
Transactions
—
—
Joins
—
—
Secondary indexes
—
—
Full-text search
—
—
Vector search
—
—
Geospatial
—
—
JSON
—
—
Change data capture
—
—
Triggers
—
—
Stored procedures
—
—
Materialized views
—
—
TTL / expiry
✓
✓
Pub/Sub
—
—
Columnar storage
—
✓
In-memory
—
—
Durable persistence
✓
✓
Compression
✓
✓
Encryption at rest
—
—
Role-based access
—
—
Time travel
—
—
Branching
—
—
Online schema changes
—
—
Streaming ingest
✓
✓
Offline sync
—
—
Runs in WebAssembly
—
—
interfaces
Query languages
PromQL
Label selectors (PromQL-style)
Client languages
–
Go, Java, Python, Ruby, .NET, Rust, JavaScript
Best for
Observability, Time-series
Observability
Add more to this comparisonNot sure either fits? Try smart match

Grafana Mimir vs Grafana Pyroscope: FAQ

What is the difference between Grafana Mimir and Grafana Pyroscope?

Grafana Mimir: Grafana Labs' horizontally scalable, multi-tenant long-term store for Prometheus and OTLP metrics. Grafana Pyroscope: Continuous profiling database that stores CPU and memory profiles over time on object storage. Grafana Mimir is built for larger datasets (Multi-PB) than Grafana Pyroscope (≤ 1 PB). Only Grafana Pyroscope has columnar storage.

When should I choose Grafana Mimir over Grafana Pyroscope?

Choose Grafana Mimir for centralised multi-tenant metrics for many clusters, long-term Prometheus storage on object storage and platform teams offering metrics-as-a-service internally. Choose Grafana Pyroscope for finding CPU and memory hot spots in production; comparing performance between releases; and reducing cloud compute cost.

Is Grafana Mimir or Grafana Pyroscope more popular?

Grafana Mimir ranks #203 on the WhichDB Score (15.8/100) and Grafana Pyroscope ranks #263 (12.7/100). Popularity is not fit: check the requirements that matter for your project.

Are Grafana Mimir and Grafana Pyroscope open source?

Yes. Grafana Mimir is open source. License: GNU AGPL v3.0. Yes. Grafana Pyroscope is open source. License: GNU AGPL v3.0.