head to head · open source
NetData vs bottom
NetData has 80,561 GitHub stars, 6,630 forks, 393 open issues and last shipped yesterday. bottom has 14,032 stars, 385 forks, 103 open issues and last shipped yesterday. NetData leads on adoption by 474% (80,561 vs 14,032 stars). NetData is written in Go under GPL-3.0; bottom is written in Rust under MIT. NetData has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, bottom 3%. 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 | bottom | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 81K | ★ 14K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.6K | ⑂ 385 |
| 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 bottom if
- You want the bottom feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and bottom 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 bottom
bottom is a customizable cross platform graphical process and system monitor that runs inside the terminal, written in Rust and aimed at developers, system administrators, and anyone who wants an interactive view of CPU, memory, network, disk, and process activity without leaving the shell.
read the full bottom overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is NetData or bottom more popular?
NetData has 80,561 GitHub stars and bottom has 14,032. NetData has the larger community by that measure.
Are NetData and bottom free?
Both are open source. NetData is licensed under GPL-3.0 and bottom under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between NetData and bottom?
NetData is written in Go and bottom in Rust. 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 bottom?
Choose NetData if you want the larger community (80,561 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose bottom if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.