head to head · open source
NetData vs alloy
NetData has 81,255 GitHub stars, 6,717 forks, 393 open issues and last shipped yesterday. alloy has 3,662 stars, 760 forks, 1,237 open issues and last shipped yesterday. NetData leads on adoption by 2,119% (81,255 vs 3,662 stars). NetData is written in Go under GPL-3.0; alloy is written in Go under Apache-2.0. NetData has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, alloy 21%. alloy was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (grafana), 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 | alloy | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 81K | ★ 3.7K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.7K | ⑂ 760 |
| 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 alloy if
- You want the alloy 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 alloy fits your workflow better
About NetData
X Ray Vision for your infrastructure! Every Metric, Every Second. No BS. Visit our Home Page MENU: WHO WE ARE KEY FEATURES GETTING STARTED HOW IT WORKS FAQ DOCS COMMUNITY CONTRIBUTE LICENSE [!WARNING] People get addicted to Netdata. Once you use it on your systems, there's no going back. WHO WE ARE Netdata is an open source, real time infrastructure monitoring platform. Monitor, detect, and act across your entire infrastructure. Core Advantages: Instant Insights – With Netdata you can access per second metrics and visualizations. Zero Configuration – You can deploy immediately without complex setup. ML Powered –…
read the full NetData overview →
About alloy
Grafana Alloy is an open source OpenTelemetry Collector distribution with built in Prometheus pipelines and support for metrics, logs, traces, and profiles. What can Alloy do? Programmable pipelines : Use a rich [expression based syntax][syntax] for configuring powerful observability pipelines. OpenTelemetry Collector Distribution : Alloy is a [distribution][] of OpenTelemetry Collector and supports dozens of its components, alongside new components that make use of Alloy's programmable pipelines. Big tent : Alloy embraces Grafana's "big tent" philosophy, where Alloy can be used with other vendors or open source…
read the full alloy overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is NetData or alloy more popular?
NetData has 81,255 GitHub stars and alloy has 3,662. NetData has the larger community by that measure.
Are NetData and alloy free?
Both are open source. NetData is licensed under GPL-3.0 and alloy under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between NetData and alloy?
NetData is written in Go and alloy 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 alloy?
Choose NetData if you want the larger community (81,255 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose alloy if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.