head to head · open source
NetData vs Prometheus
NetData has 80,564 GitHub stars, 6,630 forks, 393 open issues and last shipped today. Prometheus has 66,109 stars, 10,839 forks, 890 open issues and last shipped yesterday. NetData leads on adoption by 22% (80,564 vs 66,109 stars). NetData is written in Go under GPL-3.0; Prometheus is written in Go under Apache-2.0. NetData has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, Prometheus 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 (alerting), 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 | Prometheus | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 81K | ★ 66K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.6K | ⑂ 11K |
| 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 Prometheus if
- You want the Prometheus feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and Prometheus 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 Prometheus
Prometheus is an open source monitoring system and time series database, part of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation ecosystem. It collects metrics from configured targets at defined intervals, evaluates alerting rules, and visualizes results. Designed for reliability in dynamic environments, it operates without reliance on distributed storage, ensuring each server node functions independently.
read the full Prometheus overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is NetData or Prometheus more popular?
NetData has 80,564 GitHub stars and Prometheus has 66,109. NetData has the larger community by that measure.
Are NetData and Prometheus free?
Both are open source. NetData is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Prometheus under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between NetData and Prometheus?
NetData is written in Go and Prometheus in Go. 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 Prometheus?
Choose NetData if you want the larger community (80,564 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Prometheus if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.