head to head · open source
NetData vs opentelemetry-js
NetData has 80,564 GitHub stars, 6,630 forks, 393 open issues and last shipped today. opentelemetry-js has 3,471 stars, 1,164 forks, 235 open issues and last shipped yesterday. NetData leads on adoption by 2,221% (80,564 vs 3,471 stars). NetData is written in Go under GPL-3.0; opentelemetry-js is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. NetData has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, opentelemetry-js 34%. 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-js | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 81K | ★ 3.5K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.6K | ⑂ 1.2K |
| 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-js if
- You want the opentelemetry-js feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and opentelemetry-js 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-js
Getting Started • API and SDK Reference Contributing • Examples About this project This is the JavaScript version of OpenTelemetry, a framework for collecting traces, metrics, and logs from applications. Quick Start Much of OpenTelemetry JS documentation is written assuming the compiled application is run as CommonJS. For more details on ECMAScript Modules vs CommonJS, refer to esm support. The following describes how to set up tracing for a basic web application. For more detailed documentation, see the website at . Installation Dependencies with the latest tag on NPM should be compatible with each oth…
read the full opentelemetry-js overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is NetData or opentelemetry-js more popular?
NetData has 80,564 GitHub stars and opentelemetry-js has 3,471. NetData has the larger community by that measure.
Are NetData and opentelemetry-js free?
Both are open source. NetData is licensed under GPL-3.0 and opentelemetry-js under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between NetData and opentelemetry-js?
NetData is written in Go and opentelemetry-js in TypeScript. 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-js?
Choose NetData if you want the larger community (80,564 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose opentelemetry-js if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.