Backstagevsgrafana
Two self-hosted projects, compared on the numbers selfhost.directory tracks live: score, popularity, release cadence and setup effort.
| Backstage | grafana | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 79/100 | 90/100 |
| Rank in category | #8 of 166 in Developer Tools | #1 of 104 in Monitoring & observability |
| GitHub stars | 34 736 | 77 580 |
| Stars, last 30 days | +54 | +687 |
| Stable releases, 12 months | 14 | 53 |
| Latest release | v1.57.0-next.0 · 27 Oct 2026 | v13.2.5 · 27 Oct 2026 |
| Setup | Advanced | Moderate |
| Official Docker image | No | Yes |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Main language | Typescript | Typescript |
Which one should you pick?
grafana scores 90/100 against 79/100 for Backstage, so it is the safer default.
grafana ships more often: 53 stable releases in the past year, against 14 for Backstage.
If you want the quickest setup, grafana is easier to run; Backstage needs more configuration.
grafana is growing faster right now (+687 stars in 30 days).
Backstage details →grafana details →