Thanos

Linux · Self-hosted · API

Freedom report

Two barsScore 6.3

Free tierA free tier is on its own pricing page
Open codeNo open-source code on record
Runs widely1 of 6 device platforms
DocumentedPlans, terms and facts published

Thanos is ranked #27 of 49 in Kubernetes monitoring on Freedom251. It runs on API, Linux, Self-hosted. There is a free plan.

Thanos plans and pricing

All plans

Open source Free Apache License 2.0 · no paid plans or usage limits stated thanos.io · 4 Oct 2026

Compared on Kubernetes monitoring

Custom metrics: Yes
Query language: promql
Data ingestion: multiple
Self-hosted option: Yes

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The record

Purpose: Thanos is an open-source set of components for building highly available Prometheus setups with long-term storage.
Global queries: Thanos lets users query metrics across multiple Prometheus servers and clusters.
Retention: Thanos can use object storage to retain metrics for unlimited time.
Storage providers: The homepage lists GCP, S3, Azure, Swift, and Tencent COS as supported object storage options.
Prometheus compatibility: Thanos is compatible with tools such as Grafana that support the Prometheus Query API.
Downsampling: Thanos can downsample historical data to speed queries over large time ranges and configure retention policies.
Integrations: The integrations documentation describes StoreAPI connections, including Geras for OpenTSDB and a proxy for Prometheus remote read.
Deployment: Thanos runs in cloud-native and traditional environments, including Kubernetes and bare metal.
Dependencies: The documented dependency is one or more Prometheus v2.2.1+ installations with persistent disk; object storage is optional.
Security: Thanos uses TLS by default for object storage communication, but its security policy says local metrics are not encrypted by Thanos and its HTTP APIs lack authorization or TLS support.
Support channels: The project points users to its Slack community and GitHub issue tracker for contact and support.
Production guidance: The documentation does not recommend running Thanos on a single node in production because it is designed as a distributed system.
License and origin: Thanos is licensed under Apache License 2.0 and was founded by Improbable.
Price from: Free

Where it ranks on Freedom251

Best Kubernetes Monitoring in 2026#27 of 49
Best Metrics Monitoring Tools in 2026#16 of 33

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Sources

thanos.io/tip/thanos/design.md/· checked 4 Oct 2026
thanos.io· checked 4 Oct 2026
thanos.io/tip/thanos/integrations.md/· checked 4 Oct 2026
thanos.io/tip/thanos/getting-started.md/· checked 4 Oct 2026
thanos.io/tip/thanos/security.md/· checked 4 Oct 2026