head to head · open source
NetData vs ngxtop
NetData has 81,255 GitHub stars, 6,717 forks, 393 open issues and last shipped yesterday. ngxtop has 6,521 stars, 472 forks, 62 open issues and last shipped 8 months ago. NetData leads on adoption by 1,146% (81,255 vs 6,521 stars). NetData is written in Go under GPL-3.0; ngxtop is written in Python under MIT. NetData has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, ngxtop 7%. 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 | ngxtop | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 81K | ★ 6.5K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-03-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.7K | ⑂ 472 |
| 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 ngxtop if
- You want the ngxtop feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and ngxtop 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 ngxtop
================================================================ ngxtop real time metrics for nginx server (and others) ================================================================ ngxtop parses your nginx access log and outputs useful, top like, metrics of your nginx server. So you can tell what is happening with your server in real time. ngxtop is designed to run in a short period time just like the top command for troubleshooting and monitoring your Nginx server at the moment. If you need a long running monitoring process or storing your webserver stats in external monitoring / graphing system, you can…
read the full ngxtop overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is NetData or ngxtop more popular?
NetData has 81,255 GitHub stars and ngxtop has 6,521. NetData has the larger community by that measure.
Are NetData and ngxtop free?
Both are open source. NetData is licensed under GPL-3.0 and ngxtop under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between NetData and ngxtop?
NetData is written in Go and ngxtop in Python. 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 ngxtop?
Choose NetData if you want the larger community (81,255 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose ngxtop if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.