head to head · open source
NetData vs kmon
NetData has 81,255 GitHub stars, 6,717 forks, 393 open issues and last shipped yesterday. kmon has 2,969 stars, 93 forks, 23 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. NetData leads on adoption by 2,637% (81,255 vs 2,969 stars). NetData is written in Go under GPL-3.0; kmon is written in Rust under GPL-3.0. NetData has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, kmon 3%. NetData was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (linux), 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 | kmon | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 81K | ★ 3.0K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-09-21 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.7K | ⑂ 93 |
| 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 kmon if
- You want the kmon feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and kmon 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 kmon
Linux Kernel Manager and Activity Monitor 🐧💻 The kernel is the part of the operating system that facilitates interactions between hardware and software components. On most systems, it is loaded on startup after the bootloader and handles I/O requests as well as peripherals like keyboards, monitors, network adapters, and speakers. Typically, the kernel is responsible for memory management , process management , device management , system calls , and security . Applications use the system call mechanism for requesting a service from the operating system and most of the time, this request is passed to the kernel…
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Frequently asked questions
Is NetData or kmon more popular?
NetData has 81,255 GitHub stars and kmon has 2,969. NetData has the larger community by that measure.
Are NetData and kmon free?
Both are open source. NetData is licensed under GPL-3.0 and kmon under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between NetData and kmon?
NetData is written in Go and kmon in Rust. 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 kmon?
Choose NetData if you want the larger community (81,255 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose kmon if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.