head to head · open source
NetData vs defmt
NetData has 80,564 GitHub stars, 6,630 forks, 393 open issues and last shipped yesterday. defmt has 1,228 stars, 132 forks, 117 open issues and last shipped 11 days ago. NetData leads on adoption by 6,461% (80,564 vs 1,228 stars). NetData is written in Go under GPL-3.0; defmt is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. NetData has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, defmt 11%. 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 | defmt | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 81K | ★ 1.2K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-08 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.6K | ⑂ 132 |
| 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 defmt if
- You want the defmt feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and defmt 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 defmt
defmt is an efficient, deferred formatting logging framework for embedded systems written in Rust, aimed at firmware developers building for resource constrained devices such as microcontrollers.
read the full defmt overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is NetData or defmt more popular?
NetData has 80,564 GitHub stars and defmt has 1,228. NetData has the larger community by that measure.
Are NetData and defmt free?
Both are open source. NetData is licensed under GPL-3.0 and defmt under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between NetData and defmt?
NetData is written in Go and defmt 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 defmt?
Choose NetData if you want the larger community (80,564 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose defmt if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.