head to head · open source
NetData vs opencost
NetData has 80,564 GitHub stars, 6,630 forks, 393 open issues and last shipped today. opencost has 6,749 stars, 882 forks, 306 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. NetData leads on adoption by 1,094% (80,564 vs 6,749 stars). NetData is written in Go under GPL-3.0; opencost is written in Go under Apache-2.0. NetData has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, opencost 13%. NetData was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (cncf, 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 | opencost | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 81K | ★ 6.7K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.6K | ⑂ 882 |
| 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 opencost if
- You want the opencost 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 opencost 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 opencost
OpenCost is an Apache 2.0 licensed, Go based cost monitoring tool that gives platform, FinOps, and engineering teams visibility into current and historical Kubernetes resource allocation and multi cloud spend, built for anyone running Kubernetes clusters who needs to know what those clusters and their cloud services actually cost.
read the full opencost overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is NetData or opencost more popular?
NetData has 80,564 GitHub stars and opencost has 6,749. NetData has the larger community by that measure.
Are NetData and opencost free?
Both are open source. NetData is licensed under GPL-3.0 and opencost under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between NetData and opencost?
NetData is written in Go and opencost 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 opencost?
Choose NetData if you want the larger community (80,564 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose opencost if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.