head to head · open source
NetData vs alerta
NetData has 80,564 GitHub stars, 6,630 forks, 393 open issues and last shipped yesterday. alerta has 2,529 stars, 374 forks, 34 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. NetData leads on adoption by 3,086% (80,564 vs 2,529 stars). NetData is written in Go under GPL-3.0; alerta is written in Python under Apache-2.0. NetData has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, alerta 15%. NetData 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
| NetData | alerta | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 81K | ★ 2.5K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-06-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.6K | ⑂ 374 |
| 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 alerta if
- You want the alerta feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and alerta 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 alerta
Alerta is an open source, Apache 2.0 licensed monitoring system in Python that aggregates alerts from any source into a single API driven server and web console, and it is aimed at operations and platform teams that want a scalable, low configuration alert aggregation layer instead of another polling based monitoring stack.
read the full alerta overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is NetData or alerta more popular?
NetData has 80,564 GitHub stars and alerta has 2,529. NetData has the larger community by that measure.
Are NetData and alerta free?
Both are open source. NetData is licensed under GPL-3.0 and alerta under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between NetData and alerta?
NetData is written in Go and alerta in Python. 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 alerta?
Choose NetData if you want the larger community (80,564 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose alerta if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.