head to head · open source
NetData vs Grafana
NetData has 80,561 GitHub stars, 6,630 forks, 393 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Grafana has 76,791 stars, 14,749 forks, 3,326 open issues and last shipped yesterday. NetData leads on adoption by 5% (80,561 vs 76,791 stars). NetData is written in Go under GPL-3.0; Grafana is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. NetData has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, Grafana 19%. Grafana was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 4 topic tags (alerting, data-visualization, grafana, influxdb), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| NetData | Grafana | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 81K | ★ 77K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.6K | ⑂ 15K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick NetData if
- You weight community size — 81K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Grafana if
- You want the Grafana feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Grafana fits your workflow better
About NetData
Netdata is an open source, real time infrastructure monitoring platform written in Go and released under GPL 3.0, built for operators and lean teams who need per second visibility across Linux, macOS, FreeBSD, and Windows systems.
read the full NetData overview →
About Grafana
Grafana is an open source observability platform for visualizing metrics, logs, and traces across diverse data sources. It runs in the infrastructure and operations ecosystem, designed for teams needing unified visibility into system behavior without vendor lock in. Built with TypeScript and Go, it provides a composable architecture that integrates with existing toolchains.
read the full Grafana overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is NetData or Grafana more popular?
NetData has 80,561 GitHub stars and Grafana has 76,791. NetData has the larger community by that measure.
Are NetData and Grafana free?
Both are open source. NetData is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Grafana under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between NetData and Grafana?
NetData is written in Go and Grafana in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, NetData or Grafana?
Choose NetData if you want the larger community (80,561 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Grafana if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.