head to head · open source
NetData vs Highlight
NetData has 80,561 GitHub stars, 6,630 forks, 393 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Highlight has 9,375 stars, 675 forks, 553 open issues and last shipped 29 days ago. NetData leads on adoption by 759% (80,561 vs 9,375 stars). NetData is written in Go under GPL-3.0; Highlight is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence. NetData has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, Highlight 7%. 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 | Highlight | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 81K | ★ 9.4K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-08-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.6K | ⑂ 675 |
| 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 Highlight if
- You want the Highlight feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Highlight 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 Highlight
Highlight is an open source, full stack monitoring platform for modern web applications. It lives in the Infrastructure & Operations / Monitoring & Observability ecosystem, and its repository lists TypeScript, Golang, APM, metrics, tracing, and self hosted as topics.
read the full Highlight overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is NetData or Highlight more popular?
NetData has 80,561 GitHub stars and Highlight has 9,375. NetData has the larger community by that measure.
Are NetData and Highlight free?
Both are open source. NetData is licensed under GPL-3.0, and Highlight has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between NetData and Highlight?
NetData is written in Go and Highlight in TypeScript. 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 Highlight?
Choose NetData if you want the larger community (80,561 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Highlight if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.