head to head · open source
NetData vs kube-state-metrics
NetData has 81,255 GitHub stars, 6,717 forks, 393 open issues and last shipped yesterday. kube-state-metrics has 6,234 stars, 2,201 forks, 109 open issues and last shipped yesterday. NetData leads on adoption by 1,203% (81,255 vs 6,234 stars). NetData is written in Go under GPL-3.0; kube-state-metrics is written in Go under Apache-2.0. NetData has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, kube-state-metrics 35%. NetData was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (kubernetes), 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 | kube-state-metrics | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 81K | ★ 6.2K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.7K | ⑂ 2.2K |
| 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 kube-state-metrics if
- You want the kube-state-metrics feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and kube-state-metrics 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 kube-state-metrics
Overview kube state metrics (KSM) is a simple service that listens to the Kubernetes API server and generates metrics about the state of the objects. (See examples in the Metrics section below.) It is not focused on the health of the individual Kubernetes components, but rather on the health of the various objects inside, such as deployments, nodes and pods. kube state metrics is about generating metrics from Kubernetes API objects without modification. This ensures that features provided by kube state metrics have the same grade of stability as the Kubernetes API objects themselves. In turn, this means that…
read the full kube-state-metrics overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is NetData or kube-state-metrics more popular?
NetData has 81,255 GitHub stars and kube-state-metrics has 6,234. NetData has the larger community by that measure.
Are NetData and kube-state-metrics free?
Both are open source. NetData is licensed under GPL-3.0 and kube-state-metrics under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between NetData and kube-state-metrics?
NetData is written in Go and kube-state-metrics in Go. 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 kube-state-metrics?
Choose NetData if you want the larger community (81,255 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose kube-state-metrics if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.