head to head · open source
NetData vs pcm
NetData has 80,564 GitHub stars, 6,630 forks, 393 open issues and last shipped yesterday. pcm has 3,331 stars, 528 forks, 69 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. NetData leads on adoption by 2,319% (80,564 vs 3,331 stars). NetData is written in Go under GPL-3.0; pcm is written in C++ under BSD-3-Clause. NetData has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, pcm 16%. NetData was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (linux), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
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 | pcm | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 81K | ★ 3.3K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | BSD-3-Clause |
| Written in | Go | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.6K | ⑂ 528 |
| 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 pcm if
- You want the pcm feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and pcm 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 pcm
Intel® Performance Counter Monitor (Intel® PCM) is a BSD 3 Clause licensed C++ API and command line toolset from Intel for monitoring the performance and energy metrics of Intel® Core™, Xeon®, Atom™ and Xeon Phi™ processors.
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Frequently asked questions
Is NetData or pcm more popular?
NetData has 80,564 GitHub stars and pcm has 3,331. NetData has the larger community by that measure.
Are NetData and pcm free?
Both are open source. NetData is licensed under GPL-3.0 and pcm under BSD-3-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between NetData and pcm?
NetData is written in Go and pcm 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 pcm?
Choose NetData if you want the larger community (80,564 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose pcm if its feature set, stack or BSD-3-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.