head to head · open source
NetData vs log
NetData has 81,255 GitHub stars, 6,717 forks, 393 open issues and last shipped yesterday. log has 3,414 stars, 105 forks, 41 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. NetData leads on adoption by 2,280% (81,255 vs 3,414 stars). NetData is written in Go under GPL-3.0; log is written in Go under MIT. NetData has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, log 3%. 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 | log | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 81K | ★ 3.4K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.7K | ⑂ 105 |
| 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 log if
- You want the log feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and log 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 log
Log A minimal and colorful Go logging library. 🪵 It provides a leveled structured human readable logger with a small API. Unlike [standard log ][stdlog], the Charm logger provides customizable colorful human readable logging with batteries included. Uses [Lip Gloss][lipgloss] to style and colorize the output. Colorful, human readable format. Ability to customize the time stamp format. Skips caller frames and marks function as helpers. Leveled logging. Text, JSON, and Logfmt formatters. Store and retrieve logger in and from context. Slog handler. Standard log adapter. Usage Use go get to download the dependency…
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Frequently asked questions
Is NetData or log more popular?
NetData has 81,255 GitHub stars and log has 3,414. NetData has the larger community by that measure.
Are NetData and log free?
Both are open source. NetData is licensed under GPL-3.0 and log under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between NetData and log?
NetData is written in Go and log 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 log?
Choose NetData if you want the larger community (81,255 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose log if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.