head to head · open source
herdr vs netbeans
herdr has 41,998 GitHub stars, 3,259 forks, 337 open issues and last shipped yesterday. netbeans has 3,140 stars, 939 forks, 1,081 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. herdr leads on adoption by 1,238% (41,998 vs 3,140 stars). herdr is written in Rust under Apache-2.0; netbeans is written in Java under Apache-2.0. herdr has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, netbeans 30%. herdr was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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
| herdr | netbeans | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 42K | ★ 3.1K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Rust | Java |
| Last push | 2026-10-02 | 2026-10-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.3K | ⑂ 939 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick herdr if
- You weight community size — 42K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick netbeans if
- You want the netbeans feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and netbeans fits your workflow better
About herdr
herdr is a terminal first runtime for coding agents — a single Rust binary that owns the terminals in which tools such as Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, OpenCode and Grok run, aimed at developers who keep agents working across local and remote machines and want those sessions to survive a lost SSH connection or a closed client.
read the full herdr overview →
About netbeans
Apache NetBeans is an Apache 2.0 open source development environment, tooling platform and application framework written in Java, aimed at developers who write and run Java applications and at teams that build desktop software on top of the NetBeans Platform.
read the full netbeans overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is herdr or netbeans more popular?
herdr has 41,998 GitHub stars and netbeans has 3,140. herdr has the larger community by that measure.
Are herdr and netbeans free?
Both are open source. herdr is licensed under Apache-2.0 and netbeans under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between herdr and netbeans?
herdr is written in Rust and netbeans in Java. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, herdr or netbeans?
Choose herdr if you want the larger community (41,998 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose netbeans if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.