head to head · open source
NetData vs opentelemetry-cpp
NetData has 81,255 GitHub stars, 6,717 forks, 393 open issues and last shipped yesterday. opentelemetry-cpp has 1,390 stars, 660 forks, 290 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. NetData leads on adoption by 5,746% (81,255 vs 1,390 stars). NetData is written in Go under GPL-3.0; opentelemetry-cpp is written in C++ under Apache-2.0. NetData has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, opentelemetry-cpp 47%. 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| NetData | opentelemetry-cpp | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 81K | ★ 1.4K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.7K | ⑂ 660 |
| 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-cpp if
- You want the opentelemetry-cpp feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and opentelemetry-cpp 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 opentelemetry-cpp
OpenTelemetry C++ The C++ OpenTelemetry client. Project Status Stable across all 3 signals i.e. Logs , Metrics , and Traces . See Spec Compliance Matrix to understand which portions of the specification has been implemented in this repo. Supported C++ Versions Code shipped from this repository generally supports the following versions of C++ standards: ISO/IEC 14882:2014 (C++14) ISO/IEC 14882:2017 (C++17) ISO/IEC 14882:2020 (C++20) ISO/IEC 14882:2024 (C++23) Any exceptions to this are noted in the individual README.md files. Please note that supporting the C Programming Language) is not a goal of the current…
read the full opentelemetry-cpp overview →
More in Infrastructure & Operations
Related comparisons
More Monitoring & Observability projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Monitoring & Observability field.
Frequently asked questions
Is NetData or opentelemetry-cpp more popular?
NetData has 81,255 GitHub stars and opentelemetry-cpp has 1,390. NetData has the larger community by that measure.
Are NetData and opentelemetry-cpp free?
Both are open source. NetData is licensed under GPL-3.0 and opentelemetry-cpp under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between NetData and opentelemetry-cpp?
NetData is written in Go and opentelemetry-cpp 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 opentelemetry-cpp?
Choose NetData if you want the larger community (81,255 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose opentelemetry-cpp if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.