head to head · open source
NetData vs bottom
NetData has 81,255 GitHub stars, 6,717 forks, 393 open issues and last shipped yesterday. bottom has 14,149 stars, 402 forks, 103 open issues and last shipped yesterday. NetData leads on adoption by 474% (81,255 vs 14,149 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| NetData | bottom | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 81K | ★ 14K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.7K | ⑂ 402 |
| 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
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 bottom
bottom (btm) A customizable cross platform graphical process/system monitor for the terminal. Supports Linux, macOS, and Windows. Inspired by gtop , gotop , and htop . Demo using the Gruvbox theme ( theme gruvbox ), along with IBM Plex Mono and Kitty Table of contents Features Support Official Unofficial Installation Cargo Alpine Arch Linux Debian / Ubuntu Exherbo Linux Fedora / CentOS / AlmaLinux / Rocky Linux COPR Terra RPM Gentoo Nix openSUSE Snap Solus Void Homebrew MacPorts Chocolatey Scoop winget Windows installer (MSI) Conda gah ghr mise Pre built binaries Auto completion Usage Configuration…
read the full bottom overview →
More in Infrastructure & Operations
Related comparisons
More Monitoring & Observability projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Monitoring & Observability field.
Frequently asked questions
Is NetData or bottom more popular?
NetData has 81,255 GitHub stars and bottom has 14,149. 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 (81,255 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose bottom if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.