head to head · open source
NetData vs Nagios
NetData has 80,561 GitHub stars, 6,630 forks, 393 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Nagios has 2,043 stars, 481 forks, 206 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. NetData leads on adoption by 3,843% (80,561 vs 2,043 stars). NetData is written in Go under GPL-3.0; Nagios is written in C under GPL-2.0. NetData has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, Nagios 24%. 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 | Nagios | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 81K | ★ 2.0K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | C |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-08-07 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.6K | ⑂ 481 |
| 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 Nagios if
- You want the Nagios feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You evaluated both and Nagios fits your workflow better
About NetData
Netdata is an open source, real time infrastructure monitoring platform written in Go and released under GPL 3.0, built for operators and lean teams who need per second visibility across Linux, macOS, FreeBSD, and Windows systems.
read the full NetData overview →
About Nagios
Nagios is a monitoring program for hosts, services, and network resources. It is written in C and released under the GNU General Public License, version 2.0. The project belongs to the Infrastructure & Operations / Monitoring & Observability ecosystem. Nagios 4.x can check network services, monitor host resources, expose status and history through optional CGI programs, and send notifications when problems occur or are resolved.
read the full Nagios overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is NetData or Nagios more popular?
NetData has 80,561 GitHub stars and Nagios has 2,043. NetData has the larger community by that measure.
Are NetData and Nagios free?
Both are open source. NetData is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Nagios under GPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between NetData and Nagios?
NetData is written in Go and Nagios 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 Nagios?
Choose NetData if you want the larger community (80,561 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Nagios if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.