Grafana
February 22, 2026
What it is
Grafana connects to data sources (Prometheus, Loki, Elasticsearch, etc.) and builds dashboards and alerts. Supports plugins and is often paired with Prometheus and Loki.
Usage
Visualize metrics and logs; set alerts; use Explore for ad-hoc queries; share dashboards; optional Grafana Cloud.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Many data sources | Alerting can be complex at scale |
| Flexible and pretty | |
| Plugins and community dashboards | |
| Loki/Tempo integration |
Alternatives
Kibana (Elastic), Datadog/New Relic (commercial). Why Grafana: Best fit for Prometheus/Loki and multi-source dashboards.
Links
- Homepage: https://grafana.com/
- Documentation: https://grafana.com/docs/
- Source: https://github.com/grafana/grafana