head to head · open source
NetData vs kubeshark
NetData has 81,255 GitHub stars, 6,717 forks, 393 open issues and last shipped yesterday. kubeshark has 12,126 stars, 558 forks, 149 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. NetData leads on adoption by 570% (81,255 vs 12,126 stars). NetData is written in Go under GPL-3.0; kubeshark is written in Go under Apache-2.0. NetData has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, kubeshark 5%. NetData was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (devops, docker, 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 | kubeshark | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 81K | ★ 12K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.7K | ⑂ 558 |
| 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 kubeshark if
- You want the kubeshark 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 kubeshark 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 kubeshark
Network Observability for SREs & AI Agents Live Demo · Docs Kubeshark indexes cluster wide network traffic at the kernel level using eBPF — delivering instant answers to any query using network, API, and Kubernetes semantics. What you can do: Download Retrospective PCAPs — cluster wide packet captures filtered by nodes, time, workloads, and IPs. Store PCAPs for long term retention and later investigation. Visualize Network Data — explore traffic matching queries with API, Kubernetes, or network semantics through a real time dashboard. See Encrypted Traffic in Plain Text — automatically decrypt TLS/mTLS traffic…
read the full kubeshark overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is NetData or kubeshark more popular?
NetData has 81,255 GitHub stars and kubeshark has 12,126. NetData has the larger community by that measure.
Are NetData and kubeshark free?
Both are open source. NetData is licensed under GPL-3.0 and kubeshark under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between NetData and kubeshark?
NetData is written in Go and kubeshark 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 kubeshark?
Choose NetData if you want the larger community (81,255 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose kubeshark if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.