alerta
Alerta is an open-source, distributed monitoring and alerting system designed for scalability and minimal configuration. It ingests alerts from any source, stores them in MongoDB or PostgreSQL, and provides a web UI for visualization and drill-down analysis.
Key facts
Objective fields from the source. Values we can't verify are shown as “Unknown” rather than guessed.
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Repository | alerta/alerta |
| Owner | alerta |
| Primary language | Python |
| License | Apache-2.0 — OSI-approved |
| Stars | 2.5k |
| Forks | 372 |
| Open issues | 30 |
| Latest release | v9.1.0 (2026-03-28) |
| Last updated | 2026-06-19 |
| Source | https://github.com/alerta/alerta |
What alerta is
Python 3.9+ application built on Flask that aggregates alerts into a central database (MongoDB 6.0+ or PostgreSQL 13+), exposes a REST API, and includes a web console for real-time visualization. Supports multi-instance deployment for horizontal scaling.
Get the alerta source
Clone the repository and explore it locally.
git clone https://github.com/alerta/alerta.gitcd alerta# follow the project's README for install & configurationNeed it deployed, integrated, or customized instead? DEV.co ships production installs.
Best use cases
Implementation considerations
- Provision MongoDB 6.0+ or PostgreSQL 13+ before deployment; no embedded database option.
- Deploy web UI separately from API server; fetch latest release tarball and serve via HTTP server or reverse proxy.
- Plan API authentication and authorization strategy; ref config docs for RBAC, API keys, and SSO options.
- Integrate upstream alert sources via HTTP POST, syslog, or vendor-specific adapters; verify payload schema.
- Configure log handlers and log levels in alertad.conf for production observability.
When to avoid it — and what to weigh
- No operational database support in place — Mandatory MongoDB or PostgreSQL dependency; teams without existing DB ops expertise may face operational overhead in HA setup.
- Need for real-time metric storage and time-series queries — Alerta is an alert aggregation and visualization tool, not a metrics database; does not replace Prometheus, InfluxDB, or similar time-series stores.
- Requirement for integrated alerting rules engine — Alerta assumes alerts are generated upstream; it does not provide rule evaluation (use Prometheus AlertManager, Grafana, or equivalent separately).
- Small team with no monitoring infrastructure — Simpler, all-in-one tools (Grafana, Datadog) may be faster to deploy if no existing alert sources exist.
License & commercial use
Apache License 2.0 (Apache-2.0). Permissive OSI-approved license allowing commercial use, modification, and distribution with attribution and liability disclaimer.
Apache-2.0 is a permissive open-source license compatible with commercial use without royalties. No proprietary lock-in. Internal use and integration into proprietary products are permitted; distribution of modified versions requires license notice. Review Apache-2.0 terms for formal compliance in your jurisdiction.
DEV.co evaluation signals
Editorial assessment — not user reviews. Directional, with an explicit confidence level.
| Signal | Assessment |
|---|---|
| Maintenance | Active |
| Documentation | Adequate |
| License clarity | Clear |
| Deployment complexity | Moderate |
| DEV.co fit | Good |
| Assessment confidence | High |
No security audit or compliance certifications mentioned in provided data. Requires review: TLS/mTLS support, authentication methods (API key, OAuth, LDAP), authorization (RBAC/ACL), input validation, SQL/NoSQL injection mitigations, and secrets management. Assess exposure of API endpoint and database network controls in your environment. Enable DEBUG=False in production.
Alternatives to consider
Prometheus AlertManager
Native integration with Prometheus; simpler for metric-based alerting but requires Prometheus as frontend; less suitable for multi-source aggregation.
Grafana OnCall
Managed SaaS with built-in incident management; no self-hosted operational overhead but higher cost and vendor lock-in.
Elastic Stack (Elastic Cloud + Alerting)
Unified logging, metrics, and alerting; larger footprint and more complex; better for organizations already using Elastic for observability.
Build on alerta with DEV.co software developers
Evaluate Alerta for your monitoring stack. Review deployment options, database requirements, and integration with your existing tools. Start with the quick-start guide and Docker setup.
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alerta FAQ
Does Alerta store metrics or just alerts?
Can I use Alerta with my existing Prometheus / Grafana stack?
Is HA / high-availability supported?
What are the licensing terms for commercial use?
Software developers & web developers for hire
Need help beyond evaluating alerta? DEV.co is a software development agency offering software development services and web development for teams of every size. Our software developers and web developers build custom software, web applications, APIs, and open-source observability integrations — and maintain them long-term.
Ready to centralize your alerts?
Evaluate Alerta for your monitoring stack. Review deployment options, database requirements, and integration with your existing tools. Start with the quick-start guide and Docker setup.