head to head · open source
NetData vs prometheus-operator
NetData has 80,564 GitHub stars, 6,630 forks, 393 open issues and last shipped today. prometheus-operator has 9,976 stars, 3,878 forks, 296 open issues and last shipped yesterday. NetData leads on adoption by 708% (80,564 vs 9,976 stars). NetData is written in Go under GPL-3.0; prometheus-operator is written in Go under Apache-2.0. NetData has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, prometheus-operator 39%. NetData was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (kubernetes), 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-operator | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 81K | ★ 10.0K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.6K | ⑂ 3.9K |
| 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-operator if
- You want the prometheus-operator 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-operator 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-operator
Prometheus Operator is an Apache 2.0 licensed, Go based controller that provides Kubernetes native deployment and management of Prometheus and its related monitoring components, and it is built for platform and infrastructure engineers who operate a Prometheus monitoring stack on Kubernetes clusters.
read the full prometheus-operator overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is NetData or prometheus-operator more popular?
NetData has 80,564 GitHub stars and prometheus-operator has 9,976. NetData has the larger community by that measure.
Are NetData and prometheus-operator free?
Both are open source. NetData is licensed under GPL-3.0 and prometheus-operator under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between NetData and prometheus-operator?
NetData is written in Go and prometheus-operator 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-operator?
Choose NetData if you want the larger community (80,564 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose prometheus-operator if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.