Prometheus
Sentry
| Feature | Prometheus | Sentry |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free only | Free / from $26/mo |
| Free Plan | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Rating | 4.5 / 5 | 4.5 / 5 |
| Best For | devops-engineers, sre-teams, kubernetes-users, infrastructure-teams | developers, frontend-teams, mobile-developers, startups |
| Founded | 2012 | 2012 |
| Metrics Collection | ✓ | ✗ |
| Alerting | ✓ | ✓ |
| Promql | ✓ | ✗ |
| Service Discovery | ✓ | ✗ |
| Grafana Integration | ✓ | ✗ |
| Multi Dimensional Data | ✓ | ✗ |
| Error Tracking | ✗ | ✓ |
| Performance Monitoring | ✗ | ✓ |
| Session Replay | ✗ | ✓ |
| Source Maps | ✗ | ✓ |
| Release Tracking | ✗ | ✓ |
| Integrations | ✗ | ✓ |
| Issue Triaging | ✗ | ✓ |
✓ Prometheus Pros
- Free and open-source
- Powerful query language
- Great Kubernetes integration
- Active community
✗ Prometheus Cons
- No built-in long-term storage
- Complex setup
- Steep learning curve
✓ Sentry Pros
- Excellent error tracking with full stack traces
- Source map support for minified code
- Session replay shows exactly what users experienced
- Open-source self-hosted option available
- Supports 100+ platforms and frameworks
✗ Sentry Cons
- Event quotas can be exceeded during incidents
- Alert fatigue if not properly configured
- Performance monitoring less mature than Datadog
The Verdict
Prometheus is built for devops engineers and sre teams, with a focus on metrics-collection and alerting. Sentry targets developers and frontend teams and leads with error-tracking and performance-monitoring.
Prometheus uses custom enterprise pricing, while Sentry starts at $26/mo — a tangible advantage for teams with a fixed budget.
Both offer free plans, so you can test each with your real workflow before committing to a subscription.
Feature-wise, Sentry offers broader built-in capabilities (8 features vs 6), while Prometheus takes a more focused approach — which can mean a simpler, faster onboarding experience.
This is a genuinely close comparison. If you can, sign up for both free trials (where available) and run a one-week test with your actual team tasks before deciding.