head to head · open source
metrics vs node_exporter
metrics has 17,365 GitHub stars, 2,300 forks, 68 open issues and last shipped 5 months ago. node_exporter has 13,892 stars, 2,743 forks, 314 open issues and last shipped yesterday. metrics leads on adoption by 25% (17,365 vs 13,892 stars). metrics is written in JavaScript under MIT; node_exporter is written in Go under Apache-2.0. metrics has attracted 13% as many forks as stars, node_exporter 20%. node_exporter was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (metrics), 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
| metrics | node_exporter | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 17K | ★ 14K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-05-29 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.3K | ⑂ 2.7K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick metrics if
- You weight community size — 17K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick node_exporter if
- You want the node_exporter 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 node_exporter fits your workflow better
About metrics
📊 Metrics Generate metrics that can be embedded everywhere, including your GitHub profile readme! Supports users, organizations, and even repositories! For user accounts For organization accounts 🧩 Customizable with 47 plugins and 335 options! 📅 Isometric commit calendar 🈷️ Languages activity Full year calendar Half year calendar Indepth analysis (clone and analyze repositories) Recently used (analyze recent activity events) Default algorithm Default algorithm (with details) ✨ Stargazers 👨💻 Lines of code changed Classic charts Graph charts Worldmap Repositories and diff history Compact display in base…
read the full metrics overview →
About node_exporter
Node exporter [ ][quay] [ ][hub] [ ][goreportcard] Prometheus exporter for hardware and OS metrics exposed by \ NIX kernels, written in Go with pluggable metric collectors. The Windows exporter is recommended for Windows users. To expose NVIDIA GPU metrics, prometheus dcgm can be used. Installation and Usage If you are new to Prometheus and node exporter there is a simple step by step guide. The node exporter listens on HTTP port 9100 by default. See the help output for more options. Linux distribution packages On Enterprise Linux (RHEL, CentOS Stream, Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux) and Fedora, node exporter is…
read the full node_exporter overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is metrics or node_exporter more popular?
metrics has 17,365 GitHub stars and node_exporter has 13,892. metrics has the larger community by that measure.
Are metrics and node_exporter free?
Both are open source. metrics is licensed under MIT and node_exporter under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between metrics and node_exporter?
metrics is written in JavaScript and node_exporter 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, metrics or node_exporter?
Choose metrics if you want the larger community (17,365 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose node_exporter if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.