Crates / prometheus / Alternatives
Rust crate alternatives · data Oct 24, 2026
Alternatives to prometheus
Short answerThe closest alternatives to prometheus on crates.io data are tracing (2.6M real downloads a day), tracing-subscriber (1.9M real downloads a day), opentelemetry (844K real downloads a day). Of the 7 we list, the most used is tracing, and 7 shipped a release in the last year. prometheus itself gets 338,351 a day with 953 dependents.
Every alternative we found
| Alternative | Real downloads a day | vs prometheus | Dependents | Last release | Why it is listed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| tracing Foundational | 2,611,879 | 7.72x | 46,220 | 10mo | keyword "metrics" | side by side |
| tracing-subscriber Foundational | 1,919,774 | 5.67x | 20,192 | 7mo | keyword "metrics" | compare |
| opentelemetry Widely used | 843,720 | 2.49x | 1,838 | 15d | keyword "metrics" | compare |
| opentelemetry-proto Established | 616,473 | 1.82x | 166 | 15d | keyword "metrics" | compare |
| opentelemetry-otlp Widely used | 562,213 | 1.66x | 1,046 | 15d | keyword "metrics" | compare |
| metrics Widely used | 278,558 | 0.82x | 1,333 | 5mo | keyword "metrics" | compare |
| metrics-util Established | 245,434 | 0.73x | 226 | 5mo | keyword "metrics" | compare |
How to choose
- Same job, not the same API. Each line is listed because it shares a crates.io category or keyword with prometheus; read its description before you swap.
- More dependents means more answered questions and a smaller chance it disappears.
- Check the last release against how fast you need fixes. For prometheus: is it still maintained?
Rules
Alternatives = tracked crates (top 1000 by downloads) that share a specific crates.io category (2 points each) or keyword (3 points each) with prometheus, most similar first; its own parts (same name prefix) and crates it depends on or that depend on it are left out, because those are companions, not substitutes. Real downloads = quiet-day median, crates.io data Oct 24, 2026. Built when we find 3 or more.
Up next
The closest alternative: Foundational and steady. 2,611,879 real downloads a day.tracingRust crate. Application-level tracing for Rust. Real use: 2.6M downloads a day on quiet days; 46,220 crates depend on it.Read it next →Also worth your time