head to head · open source
NetData vs nezha
NetData has 80,564 GitHub stars, 6,630 forks, 393 open issues and last shipped today. nezha has 10,317 stars, 1,613 forks, 54 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. NetData leads on adoption by 681% (80,564 vs 10,317 stars). NetData is written in Go under GPL-3.0; nezha is written in Go under Apache-2.0. NetData has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, nezha 16%. 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 | nezha | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 81K | ★ 10K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.6K | ⑂ 1.6K |
| 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 nezha if
- You want the nezha 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 nezha 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 nezha
Nezha is a self hosted, lightweight server and website monitoring and O&M tool written in Go, for operators and small teams who want to watch their own machines and sites without sending that data to someone else's dashboard.
read the full nezha overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is NetData or nezha more popular?
NetData has 80,564 GitHub stars and nezha has 10,317. NetData has the larger community by that measure.
Are NetData and nezha free?
Both are open source. NetData is licensed under GPL-3.0 and nezha under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between NetData and nezha?
NetData is written in Go and nezha 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 nezha?
Choose NetData if you want the larger community (80,564 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose nezha if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.