Who is each tool for?
Pr
Prometheus
Teams wanting powerful open-source metrics monitoring with PromQL
El
Elasticsearch (ELK)
Organizations needing powerful full-text search and log analytics
Pros and Cons
Pr
Prometheus
Pros
- Powerful PromQL query language
- Excellent Kubernetes integration
- Active open-source community
- Pull-based model is firewall-friendly
Cons
- Limited long-term storage by default
- No built-in dashboards (needs Grafana)
- High cardinality can be challenging
El
Elasticsearch (ELK)
Pros
- Powerful full-text search
- Highly scalable architecture
- Rich ecosystem (ELK Stack)
- Flexible schema and queries
Cons
- Resource-intensive operation
- Complex cluster management
- Licensing changes caused concerns
Feature Comparison
Feature
Pr
PrometheusEl
Elasticsearch (ELK)APM
5
6
Log Management
3
9.5
Infrastructure Monitoring
9
7.5
Alerting
8.5
7.5
Integrations
8.5
8.5
Ease of Use
7
6.5
Support
7
8
Value for Money
10
8
Overall Score
8.9
8.8
Pricing
Pr
Prometheus
Free / Open Source
Pricing varies by data volume and features. Contact Prometheus for a custom quote.
El
Elasticsearch (ELK)
Free / Cloud from $95/mo
Pricing varies by data volume and features. Contact Elasticsearch (ELK) for a custom quote.
Our Verdict
Both Prometheus and Elasticsearch (ELK) are excellent observability platforms. Prometheus edges ahead with a score of 8.9/10, particularly excelling in Infrastructure Monitoring and Alerting.
