head to head · open source
NetData vs debug
NetData has 80,561 GitHub stars, 6,630 forks, 393 open issues and last shipped yesterday. debug has 11,454 stars, 991 forks, 96 open issues and last shipped 6 months ago. NetData leads on adoption by 603% (80,561 vs 11,454 stars). NetData is written in Go under GPL-3.0; debug is written in JavaScript under MIT. NetData has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, debug 9%. 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 | debug | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 81K | ★ 11K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-04-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.6K | ⑂ 991 |
| 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 debug if
- You want the debug feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and debug 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 debug
debug is a tiny, MIT licensed JavaScript debugging utility modelled after Node.js core's debugging technique, and it is aimed at JavaScript developers and library authors who want to turn debug output on and off by namespace instead of editing or deleting logging statements.
read the full debug overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is NetData or debug more popular?
NetData has 80,561 GitHub stars and debug has 11,454. NetData has the larger community by that measure.
Are NetData and debug free?
Both are open source. NetData is licensed under GPL-3.0 and debug under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between NetData and debug?
NetData is written in Go and debug in JavaScript. 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 debug?
Choose NetData if you want the larger community (80,561 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose debug if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.