head to head · open source
NetData vs apm-agent-nodejs
NetData has 81,255 GitHub stars, 6,717 forks, 393 open issues and last shipped yesterday. apm-agent-nodejs has 595 stars, 244 forks, 361 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. NetData leads on adoption by 13,556% (81,255 vs 595 stars). NetData is written in Go under GPL-3.0; apm-agent-nodejs is written in JavaScript under BSD-2-Clause. NetData has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, apm-agent-nodejs 41%. NetData was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (devops), 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 | apm-agent-nodejs | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 81K | ★ 595 |
| License | GPL-3.0 | BSD-2-Clause |
| Written in | Go | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.7K | ⑂ 244 |
| 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 apm-agent-nodejs if
- You want the apm-agent-nodejs feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-2-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and apm-agent-nodejs 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 apm-agent-nodejs
Elastic APM Node.js Agent This is the official Node.js application performance monitoring (APM) agent for the Elastic Observability solution. It is a Node.js package that runs with your Node.js application to automatically capture errors, tracing data, and performance metrics. APM data is sent to your Elastic Observability deployment hosted in Elastic's cloud or in your own on premises deployment where you can monitor your application, create alerts, and quick identify root causes of service issues. If you have any feedback or questions, please post them on the Discuss forum. Installation Getting started First…
read the full apm-agent-nodejs overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is NetData or apm-agent-nodejs more popular?
NetData has 81,255 GitHub stars and apm-agent-nodejs has 595. NetData has the larger community by that measure.
Are NetData and apm-agent-nodejs free?
Both are open source. NetData is licensed under GPL-3.0 and apm-agent-nodejs under BSD-2-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between NetData and apm-agent-nodejs?
NetData is written in Go and apm-agent-nodejs in JavaScript. 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 apm-agent-nodejs?
Choose NetData if you want the larger community (81,255 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose apm-agent-nodejs if its feature set, stack or BSD-2-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.