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Grafana Pyroscope vs Grafana Tempo

Grafana Pyroscope: Continuous profiling database that stores CPU and memory profiles over time on object storage. Grafana Tempo: Object-storage-backed distributed tracing backend with TraceQL search and trace-derived metrics.

key differences

  • Grafana Pyroscope is primarily a time-series database; Grafana Tempo is columnar / OLAP.
  • Grafana Tempo is built for larger datasets (Multi-PB) than Grafana Pyroscope (≤ 1 PB).

choose grafana-pyroscope for

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

best at · Observability

choose grafana-tempo for

  • +Distributed tracing for microservices
  • +Storing full-fidelity OpenTelemetry traces
  • +Deriving service-level metrics from spans

best at · Observability

Grafana PyroscopeContinuous profiling database that stores CPU and memory profiles over time on object storage.
Grafana TempoObject-storage-backed distributed tracing backend with TraceQL search and trace-derived metrics.
overview
Primary model
Time-Series
Columnar / OLAP
Also supports
Columnar / OLAP
Time-Series
Type
Database engine
Database engine
Status
Active
Active
Developer
Grafana Labs
Grafana Labs
First release
2021
2020
Latest version
2.4.2 (Oct 26, 2026)
3.1.1 (Oct 21, 2026)
License
Open source (copyleft)GNU AGPL v3.0
Open source (copyleft)GNU AGPL v3.0
Free tier
✓
✓
popularity
WhichDB Score
12.7
14.1
Rank
#263
#239
GitHub stars
11.7K
5.5K
Stack Overflow questions
–
25
scale & guarantees
Comfortable data size
Large (≤ 1 PB)
Massive (Multi-PB)
Horizontal scaling
Native
Native
Multi-region
None
None
ACID
None
None
Consistency
Eventual
Eventual
Schema
Schemaless
Schemaless
Architecture
Single node, 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
Label selectors (PromQL-style)
TraceQL
Client languages
Go, Java, Python, Ruby, .NET, Rust, JavaScript
–
Best for
Observability
Observability
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Grafana Pyroscope vs Grafana Tempo: FAQ

What is the difference between Grafana Pyroscope and Grafana Tempo?

Grafana Pyroscope: Continuous profiling database that stores CPU and memory profiles over time on object storage. Grafana Tempo: Object-storage-backed distributed tracing backend with TraceQL search and trace-derived metrics. Grafana Pyroscope is primarily a time-series database; Grafana Tempo is columnar / OLAP. Grafana Tempo is built for larger datasets (Multi-PB) than Grafana Pyroscope (≤ 1 PB).

When should I choose Grafana Pyroscope over Grafana Tempo?

Choose Grafana Pyroscope for finding CPU and memory hot spots in production; comparing performance between releases; and reducing cloud compute cost. Choose Grafana Tempo for distributed tracing for microservices, storing full-fidelity OpenTelemetry traces and deriving service-level metrics from spans.

Is Grafana Pyroscope or Grafana Tempo more popular?

Grafana Tempo ranks #239 on the WhichDB Score (14.1/100) and Grafana Pyroscope ranks #263 (12.7/100). Popularity is not fit: check the requirements that matter for your project.

Are Grafana Pyroscope and Grafana Tempo open source?

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