head to head · open source
NetData vs psutil
NetData has 80,561 GitHub stars, 6,630 forks, 393 open issues and last shipped yesterday. psutil has 11,276 stars, 1,514 forks, 258 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. NetData leads on adoption by 614% (80,561 vs 11,276 stars). NetData is written in Go under GPL-3.0; psutil is written in Python under BSD-3-Clause. NetData has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, psutil 13%. 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.
← all 8884 open source comparisons
Side by side
| NetData | psutil | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 81K | ★ 11K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | BSD-3-Clause |
| Written in | Go | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.6K | ⑂ 1.5K |
| 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 psutil if
- You want the psutil feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and psutil 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 psutil
psutil is a cross platform Python library for retrieving information about running processes and system utilization — CPU, memory, disks, network and sensors — for developers and operators who need that data programmatically from inside Python code rather than from shell output.
read the full psutil overview →
More in Infrastructure & Operations
Related comparisons
More Monitoring & Observability projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Monitoring & Observability field.
Frequently asked questions
Is NetData or psutil more popular?
NetData has 80,561 GitHub stars and psutil has 11,276. NetData has the larger community by that measure.
Are NetData and psutil free?
Both are open source. NetData is licensed under GPL-3.0 and psutil under BSD-3-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between NetData and psutil?
NetData is written in Go and psutil in Python. 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 psutil?
Choose NetData if you want the larger community (80,561 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose psutil if its feature set, stack or BSD-3-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.