head to head · open source
NetData vs CocoaLumberjack
NetData has 80,561 GitHub stars, 6,630 forks, 393 open issues and last shipped yesterday. CocoaLumberjack has 13,319 stars, 2,274 forks, 7 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. NetData leads on adoption by 505% (80,561 vs 13,319 stars). NetData is written in Go under GPL-3.0; CocoaLumberjack is written in Objective-C under BSD-3-Clause. NetData has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, CocoaLumberjack 17%. 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 | CocoaLumberjack | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 81K | ★ 13K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | BSD-3-Clause |
| Written in | Go | Objective-C |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.6K | ⑂ 2.3K |
| 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 CocoaLumberjack if
- You want the CocoaLumberjack feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches Objective-C
- You evaluated both and CocoaLumberjack 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 CocoaLumberjack
CocoaLumberjack is a fast and flexible logging framework, written primarily in Objective C with first class Swift support, for applications targeting macOS, iOS, tvOS, watchOS and visionOS.
read the full CocoaLumberjack overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is NetData or CocoaLumberjack more popular?
NetData has 80,561 GitHub stars and CocoaLumberjack has 13,319. NetData has the larger community by that measure.
Are NetData and CocoaLumberjack free?
Both are open source. NetData is licensed under GPL-3.0 and CocoaLumberjack under BSD-3-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between NetData and CocoaLumberjack?
NetData is written in Go and CocoaLumberjack in Objective-C. 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 CocoaLumberjack?
Choose NetData if you want the larger community (80,561 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose CocoaLumberjack if its feature set, stack or BSD-3-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.