batsd

Batsd [1] is a stripped down version of (StatsD + Graphite) that works well in my opinion. You won't have the full graphite functions etc, but it's easier to get started. [1] https://github.com/noahhl/batsd

IMHO, graphite is a PITA to setup, and documentation is horrible. If you're a Redis person, 37signals built a StatsD compatible version using EventMachine which stores data in Redis. https://github.com/noahhl/batsd

Briefly, probably not (everyone here at 37signals got treated to a 3000 word treatise on our statsd journey a few weeks ago). I did write up a few reasons at https://github.com/noahhl/batsd/blob/master/doc/why-not.md. In short: we as a company have a ton of Ruby experience and comparatively little Python/Node.js experience (both in terms of understanding the tools that we use, which we like to do, and simply just in being able to confidently manage dependencies, etc.), and we knew we were going to want to build our own UI eventually anyway, which limited the utility of Graphite itself. Edited to add: I can't say it enough, Etsy and Graphite are both fantastic pieces of engineering, with fantastic communities and support behind them (there's a fascinating writeup about Graphite in particular at http://www.aosabook.org/en/graphite.html).