---
title: "What are integrations? | Grafana Labs"
description: "Understanding Grafana integrations"
---

> For a curated documentation index, see [llms.txt](/llms.txt). For the complete documentation index, see [llms-full.txt](/llms-full.txt).

## What are integrations?

Integrations are **pre-packaged monitoring solutions** that collect and store data in Grafana Cloud.

## How integrations compare to manual setup

|                 | Integrations               | Manual Setup       |
|-----------------|----------------------------|--------------------|
| **Setup time**  | Minutes                    | Hours to days      |
| **Dashboards**  | Pre-built, expert-designed | Build from scratch |
| **Alerts**      | Recommended rules included | Define your own    |
| **Maintenance** | Grafana Labs maintains     | You maintain       |

## What’s included in an integration?

- **Grafana Alloy configuration** - Pre-configured collection settings for your technology. Just install the agent and metrics start flowing.
- **Pre-built dashboards** - Expert-designed visualizations that surface the metrics that matter. No dashboard building required.
- **Alert rules** - Recommended thresholds based on industry best practices like CPU > 90%, disk > 80%, etc. Ready to notify you when something goes wrong.