head to head · open source
NetData vs loongcollector
NetData has 81,255 GitHub stars, 6,717 forks, 393 open issues and last shipped yesterday. loongcollector has 2,213 stars, 456 forks, 166 open issues and last shipped yesterday. NetData leads on adoption by 3,572% (81,255 vs 2,213 stars). NetData is written in Go under GPL-3.0; loongcollector is written in C++ under Apache-2.0. NetData has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, loongcollector 21%. 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 | loongcollector | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 81K | ★ 2.2K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.7K | ⑂ 456 |
| 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 loongcollector if
- You want the loongcollector feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and loongcollector 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 loongcollector
LoongCollector High Performance Observability Data Collector Fast, Lightweight, and Battle Tested Observability Agent Quick Start • Documentation • Performance Benchmarks • Contributing Why LoongCollector? LoongCollector is a high performance, lightweight observability data collector designed for modern cloud native environments. Born from Alibaba's 15 year journey handling exponential traffic growth and powering tens of millions of deployments, LoongCollector delivers 10x higher throughput with 80% lower resource usage compared to open source alternatives. LoongCollector is a key component of…
read the full loongcollector overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is NetData or loongcollector more popular?
NetData has 81,255 GitHub stars and loongcollector has 2,213. NetData has the larger community by that measure.
Are NetData and loongcollector free?
Both are open source. NetData is licensed under GPL-3.0 and loongcollector under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between NetData and loongcollector?
NetData is written in Go and loongcollector in C++. 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 loongcollector?
Choose NetData if you want the larger community (81,255 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose loongcollector if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.