No. 21 of 58 ·Hardware Monitoring Software

Prometheus Node Exporter

Windows · Mac · Linux · Self-hosted · API

Freedom report

Three barsScore 6.4

Free tierA free tier is on its own pricing page
Open codeNo open-source code on record
Runs widely3 of 6 device platforms
DocumentedPlans, terms and facts published

Prometheus Node Exporter is ranked #21 of 58 in hardware monitoring software on Freedom251. It runs on API, Linux, macOS, Self-hosted, Windows. There is a free plan.

Prometheus Node Exporter plans and pricing

All plans

Free Free Apache 2.0 licensed software · no paid plans listed prometheus.io · 9 Oct 2026

Compared on hardware monitoring software

Supported platforms: Linux, macOS, self_hosted
Remote monitoring: Yes

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The record

Purpose: Node Exporter exposes hardware and operating system metrics from *NIX kernels for Prometheus.
Collectors: It is written in Go and uses pluggable metric collectors.
Metrics: Default collectors include CPU, disk I/O, filesystem, memory, and network metrics, with support varying by operating system.
Configuration: Collectors can be enabled or disabled with command-line flags, and some support include or exclude filters.
Endpoint: Node Exporter listens on HTTP port 9100 by default.
Installation: The project documents Linux distribution packages, an Ansible community role, and container deployment.
Container deployment: Containerized host monitoring requires host namespace access and appropriate mounts; the documentation also notes that some systems need an extra capability for the timex collector.
Optional collectors: Some collectors are disabled by default due to factors such as high cardinality, long runtime, or host resource demands.
Windows support: The project recommends Windows Exporter for Windows users.
Release platforms: The download page lists Node Exporter binaries for Darwin amd64, Darwin arm64, and Linux amd64.
License: Prometheus components are available under the Apache 2 License.
Security reporting: The repository directs vulnerability reports to the Prometheus security policy.
Integrations: The Prometheus documentation lists Node Exporter as a guide for monitoring Linux host metrics.
Price from: Free

Where it ranks on Freedom251

Best Hardware Monitoring Software in 2026#21 of 58
Best Internet Performance Monitoring Software in 2026#5 of 28

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Sources

github.com/prometheus/node_exporter· checked 9 Oct 2026
prometheus.io/download/· checked 9 Oct 2026
github.com/prometheus/node_exporter/security/polic· checked 9 Oct 2026
prometheus.io/docs/instrumenting/exporters/· checked 9 Oct 2026