head to head · open source
NetData vs kubeshark
NetData has 80,598 GitHub stars, 6,631 forks, 393 open issues and last shipped today. kubeshark has 12,082 stars, 549 forks, 149 open issues and last shipped 11 days ago. NetData leads on adoption by 567% (80,598 vs 12,082 stars). NetData is written in Go under GPL-3.0; kubeshark is written in Go under Apache-2.0. NetData has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, kubeshark 5%. NetData was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (devops, docker, kubernetes), 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 | kubeshark | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 81K | ★ 12K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-09-09 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.6K | ⑂ 549 |
| 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 kubeshark if
- You want the kubeshark feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and kubeshark 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 kubeshark
Kubeshark is an Apache 2.0, eBPF powered network observability tool for Kubernetes that indexes cluster wide L4/L7 traffic with full Kubernetes context and makes that traffic queryable by AI agents through the Model Context Protocol and by humans through a real time dashboard.
read the full kubeshark overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is NetData or kubeshark more popular?
NetData has 80,598 GitHub stars and kubeshark has 12,082. NetData has the larger community by that measure.
Are NetData and kubeshark free?
Both are open source. NetData is licensed under GPL-3.0 and kubeshark under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between NetData and kubeshark?
NetData is written in Go and kubeshark in Go. 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 kubeshark?
Choose NetData if you want the larger community (80,598 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose kubeshark if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.