head to head · open source
NetData vs opentelemetry-dotnet
NetData has 80,564 GitHub stars, 6,630 forks, 393 open issues and last shipped today. opentelemetry-dotnet has 3,753 stars, 902 forks, 143 open issues and last shipped today. NetData leads on adoption by 2,047% (80,564 vs 3,753 stars). NetData is written in Go under GPL-3.0; opentelemetry-dotnet is written in C# under Apache-2.0. NetData has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, opentelemetry-dotnet 24%. opentelemetry-dotnet 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-dotnet | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 81K | ★ 3.8K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | C# |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.6K | ⑂ 902 |
| 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-dotnet if
- You want the opentelemetry-dotnet 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-dotnet 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-dotnet
OpenTelemetry .NET The .NET OpenTelemetry implementation. Table of Contents Supported .NET versions Project status Getting started Getting started with Logging Getting started with Metrics Getting started with Tracing Repository structure Troubleshooting Extensibility Releases Contributing References Supported .NET versions Packages shipped from this repository generally support all the officially supported versions of .NET and .NET Framework (an older Windows based .NET implementation), except .NET Framework 3.5 . Any exceptions to this are noted in the individual README.md files. Project status Stable across al…
read the full opentelemetry-dotnet overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is NetData or opentelemetry-dotnet more popular?
NetData has 80,564 GitHub stars and opentelemetry-dotnet has 3,753. NetData has the larger community by that measure.
Are NetData and opentelemetry-dotnet free?
Both are open source. NetData is licensed under GPL-3.0 and opentelemetry-dotnet under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between NetData and opentelemetry-dotnet?
NetData is written in Go and opentelemetry-dotnet 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-dotnet?
Choose NetData if you want the larger community (80,564 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose opentelemetry-dotnet if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.