head to head · open source

NetData vs opentelemetry-dotnet

NetData has 81,255 GitHub stars, 6,717 forks, 393 open issues and last shipped yesterday. opentelemetry-dotnet has 3,767 stars, 913 forks, 143 open issues and last shipped yesterday. NetData leads on adoption by 2,057% (81,255 vs 3,767 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%. 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.

NetData ★ 81K opentelemetry-dotnet ★ 3.8K category Infrastructure & Operations

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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 2026-11-02 2026-11-02
Forks ⑂ 6.7K ⑂ 913
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

full NetData profile →

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

full opentelemetry-dotnet profile →

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-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…

read the full opentelemetry-dotnet overview →

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Frequently asked questions

Is NetData or opentelemetry-dotnet more popular?

NetData has 81,255 GitHub stars and opentelemetry-dotnet has 3,767. 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 (81,255 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.