head to head · open source
NetData vs jmx_exporter
NetData has 81,255 GitHub stars, 6,717 forks, 393 open issues and last shipped yesterday. jmx_exporter has 3,334 stars, 1,226 forks, 12 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. NetData leads on adoption by 2,337% (81,255 vs 3,334 stars). NetData is written in Go under GPL-3.0; jmx_exporter is written in Java under Apache-2.0. NetData has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, jmx_exporter 37%. 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 | jmx_exporter | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 81K | ★ 3.3K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Java |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-31 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.7K | ⑂ 1.2K |
| 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 jmx_exporter if
- You want the jmx_exporter feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and jmx_exporter 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 jmx_exporter
JMX Exporter The JMX Exporter is a collector to capture JMX MBean values. Documentation Documentation can be found at JMX Exporter on prometheus.github.io Contributing and community See CONTRIBUTING.md and the community section of the Prometheus homepage. The Prometheus Java community is present on the CNCF Slack on prometheus java , and we have a fortnightly community call in the Prometheus public calendar. License Apache License 2.0, see LICENSE.
read the full jmx_exporter overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is NetData or jmx_exporter more popular?
NetData has 81,255 GitHub stars and jmx_exporter has 3,334. NetData has the larger community by that measure.
Are NetData and jmx_exporter free?
Both are open source. NetData is licensed under GPL-3.0 and jmx_exporter under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between NetData and jmx_exporter?
NetData is written in Go and jmx_exporter in Java. 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 jmx_exporter?
Choose NetData if you want the larger community (81,255 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose jmx_exporter if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.