Blackfire.io vs Scalene
Blackfire.io
blackfire.ioScalene
github.comSide by side
| Figure | Blackfire.io | Scalene |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | €33.25/mo | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 2 | 1 |
| Spec score · Profiling Software | 8.0 (#8) | 7.6 (#17) |
| Purpose | Blackfire provides monitoring, profiling, testing, alerting, recommendations, browser monitoring, and analytics for PHP and Python applications. | Scalene profiles Python programs for CPU, GPU, and memory use and provides AI-powered optimization proposals. |
| Support | Basic compliance questions can be handled by the Blackfire support team via email. | The project links to a Scalene community Slack for community discussion. |
Plans
In their own words
Blackfire.io
Blackfire.io has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.
Scalene
Scalene is a free, open-source profiler for Python programs that reports CPU, GPU and memory use and offers AI-powered optimization proposals. Its line- and function-level reports separate Python time from native-code and system time. Memory analysis shows per-line use, distinguishes Python from native allocations and flags lines with likely memory leaks. GPU profiling reports time on NVIDIA-based systems. Async profiling attributes wall-clock await time to the suspended coroutine line and reports mean and peak concurrent waiters. Its graphical interface can display stitched Python and native call stacks, memory flame charts and a timeline. Scalene is usable from the command line, a web-based GUI, a Visual Studio Code extension or Jupyter notebooks. The web interface processes profiles locally and works offline. For optimization suggestions, listed AI providers include Amazon Bedrock, Microsoft Azure, OpenAI and local models through Ollama. The project reports typical profiling overhead of no more than 10–20%, often less. Scalene is available for free under the Apache-2.0 license, with installations listed for macOS, Linux, Windows and Windows Subsystem for Linux 2.