head to head · open source
NetData vs Icinga
NetData has 81,255 GitHub stars, 6,717 forks, 393 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Icinga has 2,245 stars, 622 forks, 496 open issues and last shipped yesterday. NetData leads on adoption by 3,519% (81,255 vs 2,245 stars). NetData is written in Go under GPL-3.0; Icinga is written in C++ under GPL-3.0. NetData has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, Icinga 28%. NetData was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (influxdb), 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 | Icinga | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 81K | ★ 2.2K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.7K | ⑂ 622 |
| 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 Icinga if
- You want the Icinga feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and Icinga fits your workflow better
About NetData
X Ray Vision for your infrastructure! Every Metric, Every Second. No BS. Visit our Home Page MENU: WHO WE ARE KEY FEATURES GETTING STARTED HOW IT WORKS FAQ DOCS COMMUNITY CONTRIBUTE LICENSE [!WARNING] People get addicted to Netdata. Once you use it on your systems, there's no going back. WHO WE ARE Netdata is an open source, real time infrastructure monitoring platform. Monitor, detect, and act across your entire infrastructure. Core Advantages: Instant Insights – With Netdata you can access per second metrics and visualizations. Zero Configuration – You can deploy immediately without complex setup. ML Powered –…
read the full NetData overview →
About Icinga
Icinga 2 Table of Contents 1. [About][About] 2. [Installation][Installation] 3. [Documentation][Documentation] 4. [Support][Support] 5. [License][License] 6. [Contributing][Contributing] About Icinga is a monitoring system which checks the availability of your network resources, notifies users of outages, and generates performance data for reporting. Scalable and extensible, Icinga can monitor large, complex environments across multiple locations. Icinga 2 is the monitoring server and requires Icinga Web 2 on top in your Icinga Stack. The configuration can be easily managed with either the Icinga Director…
read the full Icinga overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is NetData or Icinga more popular?
NetData has 81,255 GitHub stars and Icinga has 2,245. NetData has the larger community by that measure.
Are NetData and Icinga free?
Both are open source. NetData is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Icinga under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between NetData and Icinga?
NetData is written in Go and Icinga in C++. 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 Icinga?
Choose NetData if you want the larger community (81,255 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Icinga if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.