head to head · open source
NetData vs gf
NetData has 80,561 GitHub stars, 6,630 forks, 393 open issues and last shipped yesterday. gf has 13,272 stars, 1,719 forks, 148 open issues and last shipped yesterday. NetData leads on adoption by 507% (80,561 vs 13,272 stars). NetData is written in Go under GPL-3.0; gf is written in Go under MIT. NetData has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, gf 13%. NetData 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 | gf | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 81K | ★ 13K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.6K | ⑂ 1.7K |
| 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 gf if
- You want the gf feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and gf 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 gf
GoFrame is an MIT licensed, production ready application framework for the Go programming language that provides a full stack toolkit — HTTP server, ORM, logging, tracing, and command line scaffolding — in a single dependency, aimed at Go teams that want one coherent framework instead of assembling many separate libraries.
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Frequently asked questions
Is NetData or gf more popular?
NetData has 80,561 GitHub stars and gf has 13,272. NetData has the larger community by that measure.
Are NetData and gf free?
Both are open source. NetData is licensed under GPL-3.0 and gf under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between NetData and gf?
NetData is written in Go and gf 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 gf?
Choose NetData if you want the larger community (80,561 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose gf if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.