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Grafana Mimir vs GreptimeDB

Grafana Mimir: Grafana Labs' horizontally scalable, multi-tenant long-term store for Prometheus and OTLP metrics. GreptimeDB: Rust observability database that keeps metrics, logs and traces in one columnar engine on object storage.

key differences

  • Licensing: Grafana Mimir is open source (copyleft) (GNU AGPL v3.0); GreptimeDB is open source (permissive) (Apache License 2.0).
  • Grafana Mimir is built for larger datasets (Multi-PB) than GreptimeDB (≤ 1 PB).
  • Only GreptimeDB has joins, secondary indexes, full-text search, json, materialized views.
  • GreptimeDB has a serverless option; Grafana Mimir does not.

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 greptimedb for

  • +Unified observability backend for metrics, logs and traces
  • +Prometheus long-term storage on S3
  • +IoT and connected-vehicle telemetry
  • +Edge data collection synced to the cloud

best at · Observability, Time-series, IoT

overview
Primary model
Time-Series
Time-Series
Also supports
–
Columnar / OLAP, Search Engine
Type
Database engine
Database engine
Status
Active
Active
Developer
Grafana Labs
Greptime
First release
2022
2022
Latest version
3.2.3 (Oct 22, 2026)
1.2.1 (Sep 16, 2026)
License
Open source (copyleft)GNU AGPL v3.0
Open source (permissive)Apache License 2.0
Free tier
✓
✓
popularity
WhichDB Score
15.8
15.1
Rank
#203
#221
GitHub stars
5.3K
6.8K
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
Strong
Schema
Schemaless
Flexible
Architecture
Distributed, Shared storage
Single node, Distributed, Shared storage
deployment
Self-hosted
✓
✓
Vendor-managed cloud
✓
✓
Serverless
—
✓
Embedded
—
—
Edge
—
✓
Clouds
AWS, Google Cloud, Azure
AWS
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
SQL, PromQL
Client languages
–
Go, Java, Rust, JavaScript
Best for
Observability, Time-series
Observability, Time-series, IoT, Real-time analytics

Grafana Mimir vs GreptimeDB: FAQ

What is the difference between Grafana Mimir and GreptimeDB?

Grafana Mimir: Grafana Labs' horizontally scalable, multi-tenant long-term store for Prometheus and OTLP metrics. GreptimeDB: Rust observability database that keeps metrics, logs and traces in one columnar engine on object storage. Licensing: Grafana Mimir is open source (copyleft) (GNU AGPL v3.0); GreptimeDB is open source (permissive) (Apache License 2.0). Grafana Mimir is built for larger datasets (Multi-PB) than GreptimeDB (≤ 1 PB). Only GreptimeDB has joins, secondary indexes, full-text search, json, materialized views.

When should I choose Grafana Mimir over GreptimeDB?

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 GreptimeDB for unified observability backend for metrics, logs and traces; prometheus long-term storage on S3; and IoT and connected-vehicle telemetry.

Is Grafana Mimir or GreptimeDB more popular?

Grafana Mimir ranks #203 on the WhichDB Score (15.8/100) and GreptimeDB ranks #221 (15.1/100). Popularity is not fit: check the requirements that matter for your project.

Are Grafana Mimir and GreptimeDB open source?

Yes. Grafana Mimir is open source. License: GNU AGPL v3.0. Yes. GreptimeDB is open source. License: Apache License 2.0.