Open-Source Observability · arl

statsviz

Statsviz is a Go library that provides real-time visualization of Go runtime metrics (heap, GC, goroutines, CPU) via a web dashboard. It integrates directly into your Go application with minimal code and serves metrics over WebSocket.

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Source: GitHub — github.com/arl/statsviz

3.6k

GitHub stars

124

Forks

Primary language

MIT

License (OSI-approved)

Key facts

Objective fields from the source. Values we can't verify are shown as “Unknown” rather than guessed.

Field	Value
Repository	arl/statsviz
Owner	arl
Primary language	Go
License	MIT — OSI-approved
Stars	3.6k
Forks	124
Open issues	11
Latest release	Unknown
Last updated	2026-07-04
Source	https://github.com/arl/statsviz

What statsviz is

Statsviz exposes Go's runtime/metrics package through HTTP handlers and a WebSocket endpoint, pushing data points to a browser-based UI at 1Hz. It provides pre-built plots for garbage collection, memory allocation, scheduler behavior, and custom user-defined metrics.

Quickstart

Get the statsviz source

Clone the repository and explore it locally.

terminalbash

1git clone https://github.com/arl/statsviz.git2cd statsviz3# follow the project's README for install & configuration

Need it deployed, integrated, or customized instead? DEV.co ships production installs.

Best use cases

Local Development and Debugging

Quickly identify memory leaks, goroutine accumulation, GC pauses, and CPU overhead during development without external monitoring infrastructure.

Performance Testing and Load Analysis

Real-time observation of runtime behavior under synthetic or production-like loads to validate optimization changes and identify bottlenecks.

Educational and Operational Insight

Teach teams how Go's runtime behaves and serve as a lightweight diagnostic dashboard for small deployments or staging environments.

Implementation considerations

Requires modification of application startup to register HTTP handlers; two lines of code for basic setup, but custom routing requires NewServer() pattern.
Metrics collection runs in a separate goroutine; verify impact on GC and scheduler behavior in memory-constrained environments.
UI is served from embedded assets; no CDN or external dependencies, simplifying deployment but limiting customization.
Data retention is in-memory and unbounded by default; no sampling or ring-buffer limiting; monitor memory usage if dashboard is left open indefinitely.
WebSocket connection is unidirectional (server→client); no client-side commands or pause/resume state persistence.

When to avoid it — and what to weigh

Production High-Availability Requirements — Statsviz is a development/debugging tool; it does not provide persistent metrics storage, alerting, SLO tracking, or multi-node aggregation needed for production observability.
Multi-Tenant or Secure Environments — No built-in authentication, authorization, or encryption described. Dashboard and WebSocket are exposed via HTTP; requires external middleware for security.
Enterprise Monitoring Integration — Does not export metrics to Prometheus, Datadog, New Relic, or other observability platforms; no APIs for metric export or webhooks.
Zero-Overhead Metrics Collection — WebSocket updates run at 1Hz and the HTTP handler adds goroutine overhead; unsuitable for latency-critical or resource-constrained deployments.

License & commercial use

MIT License—permissive, allowing modification and commercial use with minimal restrictions.

MIT License permits commercial use. However, use as a production observability tool requires evaluation of operational requirements (persistence, multi-node support, alerting) typically handled by dedicated APM platforms. Suitable for internal development and staging tools.

DEV.co evaluation signals

Editorial assessment — not user reviews. Directional, with an explicit confidence level.

Signal	Assessment
Maintenance	Active
Documentation	Strong
License clarity	Clear
Deployment complexity	Low
DEV.co fit	Good
Assessment confidence	High

Security considerations

Dashboard and WebSocket endpoints expose runtime metrics (memory, goroutines, CPU, GC behavior) with no built-in authentication or encryption. Endpoints accessible to any client able to reach the HTTP server. Requires external middleware (auth, TLS, network isolation) for secure deployments. Do not expose publicly without protection.

Alternatives to consider

pprof (net/http/pprof)

Go standard library profiling; heavier (supports sampling, heap dumps, CPU profiling) but lower-level; no real-time dashboard visualization.

Prometheus + Go client library

Standard observability stack; persistent metrics, alerting, multi-node aggregation, but requires external infrastructure and more setup complexity.

expvar (runtime/expvar)

Go standard library metrics; lightweight JSON export; integrates with custom dashboards but no built-in UI or real-time visualization.

Software development agency

Build on statsviz with DEV.co software developers

Statsviz excels for development debugging. For production monitoring, multi-node setups, and alerting, explore Devco's custom software and DevOps services to design an observability architecture that scales.

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statsviz FAQ

Can I use Statsviz in production?

Statsviz is designed for development and debugging. It lacks persistence, alerting, multi-node support, and security features required for production observability. Use as a supplementary diagnostic tool only; rely on Prometheus, Datadog, or similar platforms for production monitoring.

What is the performance overhead?

Minimal during normal operation (1Hz polling via goroutine); WebSocket connection overhead depends on network latency and browser. Verify in memory-constrained or latency-critical applications. No profiling data provided; requires benchmarking in your environment.

Can I export metrics to external systems?

Not directly. Statsviz reads runtime/metrics but does not export to Prometheus, Datadog, or other platforms. Requires custom code to read runtime/metrics and integrate with your observability pipeline.

Is authentication required to access the dashboard?

No built-in authentication. Secure access using external middleware, reverse proxy auth, or network isolation. Do not expose publicly without protection.

Software development & web development with DEV.co

Need help beyond evaluating statsviz? 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.

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