Prometheus
Snyk
| Feature | Prometheus | Snyk |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free only | Free / from $25/mo |
| Free Plan | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Rating | 4.5 / 5 | 4.4 / 5 |
| Best For | devops-engineers, sre-teams, kubernetes-users, infrastructure-teams | development-teams, security-engineers, devops-teams, open-source-maintainers |
| Founded | 2012 | 2015 |
| Metrics Collection | ✓ | ✗ |
| Alerting | ✓ | ✗ |
| Promql | ✓ | ✗ |
| Service Discovery | ✓ | ✗ |
| Grafana Integration | ✓ | ✗ |
| Multi Dimensional Data | ✓ | ✗ |
| Sca Scanning | ✗ | ✓ |
| Sast | ✗ | ✓ |
| Container Scanning | ✗ | ✓ |
| Iac Scanning | ✗ | ✓ |
| Auto Fix Prs | ✗ | ✓ |
| Sbom Generation | ✗ | ✓ |
| License Compliance | ✗ | ✓ |
✓ 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
✓ Snyk Pros
- Developer-first approach integrates into existing workflows
- Automatic fix pull requests for known vulnerabilities
- Comprehensive coverage (code, deps, containers, IaC)
- Generous free tier for individual developers
✗ Snyk Cons
- Per-developer pricing expensive for large teams
- False positives require manual review
- Some language support more mature than others
The Verdict
Prometheus is built for devops engineers and sre teams, with a focus on metrics-collection and alerting. Snyk targets development teams and security engineers and leads with sca-scanning and sast.
Prometheus uses custom enterprise pricing, while Snyk starts at $25/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, Snyk offers broader built-in capabilities (7 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.