head to head · open source
NetData vs opentelemetry-collector
NetData has 80,561 GitHub stars, 6,630 forks, 393 open issues and last shipped yesterday. opentelemetry-collector has 7,564 stars, 2,249 forks, 696 open issues and last shipped yesterday. NetData leads on adoption by 965% (80,561 vs 7,564 stars). NetData is written in Go under GPL-3.0; opentelemetry-collector is written in Go under Apache-2.0. NetData has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, opentelemetry-collector 30%. 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 | opentelemetry-collector | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 81K | ★ 7.6K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.6K | ⑂ 2.2K |
| 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 opentelemetry-collector if
- You want the opentelemetry-collector 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 opentelemetry-collector 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 opentelemetry-collector
The OpenTelemetry Collector is a vendor agnostic, Apache 2.0 licensed telemetry agent and collector, written in Go, that receives, processes and exports telemetry data for teams running observability pipelines and distributed systems.
read the full opentelemetry-collector overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is NetData or opentelemetry-collector more popular?
NetData has 80,561 GitHub stars and opentelemetry-collector has 7,564. NetData has the larger community by that measure.
Are NetData and opentelemetry-collector free?
Both are open source. NetData is licensed under GPL-3.0 and opentelemetry-collector under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between NetData and opentelemetry-collector?
NetData is written in Go and opentelemetry-collector 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 opentelemetry-collector?
Choose NetData if you want the larger community (80,561 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose opentelemetry-collector if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.