head to head · open source
NetData vs grimoirelab
NetData has 80,564 GitHub stars, 6,630 forks, 393 open issues and last shipped yesterday. grimoirelab has 626 stars, 231 forks, 78 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. NetData leads on adoption by 12,770% (80,564 vs 626 stars). NetData is written in Go under GPL-3.0; grimoirelab is written in Shell under GPL-3.0. NetData has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, grimoirelab 37%. NetData was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (data-visualization), 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 | grimoirelab | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 81K | ★ 626 |
| License | GPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | Shell |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.6K | ⑂ 231 |
| 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 grimoirelab if
- You want the grimoirelab feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Shell
- You evaluated both and grimoirelab 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 grimoirelab
GrimoireLab is a GPL 3.0 licensed CHAOSS toolset for software development analytics that retrieves data from the systems used to support software development, stores it in databases, enriches it by computing metrics, and makes it available for analytics and visualization, aimed at the people who need to measure development activity rather than guess at it.
read the full grimoirelab overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is NetData or grimoirelab more popular?
NetData has 80,564 GitHub stars and grimoirelab has 626. NetData has the larger community by that measure.
Are NetData and grimoirelab free?
Both are open source. NetData is licensed under GPL-3.0 and grimoirelab under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between NetData and grimoirelab?
NetData is written in Go and grimoirelab in Shell. 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 grimoirelab?
Choose NetData if you want the larger community (80,564 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose grimoirelab if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.