head to head · open source
NetData vs calico
NetData has 81,255 GitHub stars, 6,717 forks, 393 open issues and last shipped yesterday. calico has 7,409 stars, 1,619 forks, 279 open issues and last shipped yesterday. NetData leads on adoption by 997% (81,255 vs 7,409 stars). NetData is written in Go under GPL-3.0; calico is written in Go under Apache-2.0. NetData has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, calico 22%. calico was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (kubernetes), 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 | calico | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 81K | ★ 7.4K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.7K | ⑂ 1.6K |
| 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 calico if
- You want the calico 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 calico 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 calico
Calico Quickstart Docs Contribute Slack Releases 🐾 Welcome to Project Calico! Project Calico, created and maintained by [Tigera][tigera], is an open source project with an active development and user community. Calico Open Source has grown to be the most widely adopted solution for container networking and security, powering 8M+ nodes daily across 166 countries. 🌟 Why use Calico? Data Plane Choice : eBPF, standard Linux, Windows, and VPP — versatility in network solutions. Interoperability : Works across multiple distros, multiple clouds, bare metal, and VMs. Optimized Performance : Engineered for high speed…
read the full calico overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is NetData or calico more popular?
NetData has 81,255 GitHub stars and calico has 7,409. NetData has the larger community by that measure.
Are NetData and calico free?
Both are open source. NetData is licensed under GPL-3.0 and calico under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between NetData and calico?
NetData is written in Go and calico 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 calico?
Choose NetData if you want the larger community (81,255 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose calico if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.