head to head · open source
Netbird vs suricata
Netbird has 29,353 GitHub stars, 1,685 forks, 1,512 open issues and last shipped yesterday. suricata has 6,646 stars, 1,769 forks, 86 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Netbird leads on adoption by 342% (29,353 vs 6,646 stars). Netbird is written in Go under a custom or non-standard licence; suricata is written in C under GPL-2.0. Netbird has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, suricata 27%. Netbird 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
| Netbird | suricata | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 29K | ★ 6.6K |
| License | Custom / other | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | C |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.7K | ⑂ 1.8K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Netbird if
- You weight community size — 29K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick suricata if
- You want the suricata feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You evaluated both and suricata fits your workflow better
About Netbird
NetBird is an open source, Go based platform that combines a configuration free peer to peer WireGuard overlay network with a centralized access control system, built for organizations and home users who need secure private networking without opening ports, writing complex firewall rules, or deploying VPN gateways.
read the full Netbird overview →
About suricata
Suricata is a network Intrusion Detection System (IDS), Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) and Network Security Monitoring (NSM) engine developed by the OISF and the Suricata community, released under GPL 2.0 and written in C, for security teams that need to detect, block and record activity on the networks they operate.
read the full suricata overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Netbird or suricata more popular?
Netbird has 29,353 GitHub stars and suricata has 6,646. Netbird has the larger community by that measure.
Are Netbird and suricata free?
Both are open source. Netbird has no licence declared in this registry, and suricata is licensed under GPL-2.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Netbird and suricata?
Netbird is written in Go and suricata in C. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Netbird or suricata?
Choose Netbird if you want the larger community (29,353 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose suricata if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.