head to head · open source
NetData vs btrace
NetData has 80,561 GitHub stars, 6,630 forks, 393 open issues and last shipped yesterday. btrace has 5,994 stars, 956 forks, 6 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. NetData leads on adoption by 1,244% (80,561 vs 5,994 stars). NetData is written in Go under GPL-3.0; btrace is written in Java under Apache-2.0. NetData has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, btrace 16%. 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 | btrace | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 81K | ★ 6.0K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.6K | ⑂ 956 |
| 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 btrace if
- You want the btrace feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and btrace 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 btrace
BTrace is an open source dynamic tracing and diagnostics tool for Java applications, distributed under the Apache 2.0 license and maintained in the Java and JVM ecosystem. It works by attaching to a running Java Virtual Machine and dynamically instrumenting bytecode at runtime, injecting tracing code into classes that are already loaded. The project sits in the Infrastructure & Operations / Monitoring & Observability category and carries the topics tracing, observability, diagnostics, profiling, bytecode instrumentation, runtime instrumentation, java agent and dtrace.
read the full btrace overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is NetData or btrace more popular?
NetData has 80,561 GitHub stars and btrace has 5,994. NetData has the larger community by that measure.
Are NetData and btrace free?
Both are open source. NetData is licensed under GPL-3.0 and btrace under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between NetData and btrace?
NetData is written in Go and btrace in Java. 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 btrace?
Choose NetData if you want the larger community (80,561 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose btrace if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.