head to head · open source
NetData vs pyroscope
NetData has 81,255 GitHub stars, 6,717 forks, 393 open issues and last shipped yesterday. pyroscope has 11,710 stars, 833 forks, 400 open issues and last shipped yesterday. NetData leads on adoption by 594% (81,255 vs 11,710 stars). NetData is written in Go under GPL-3.0; pyroscope is written in Go under AGPL-3.0. NetData has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, pyroscope 7%. NetData was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (devops, 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 | pyroscope | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 81K | ★ 12K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.7K | ⑂ 833 |
| 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 pyroscope if
- You want the pyroscope feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and pyroscope fits your workflow better
About NetData
X Ray Vision for your infrastructure! Every Metric, Every Second. No BS. Visit our Home Page MENU: WHO WE ARE KEY FEATURES GETTING STARTED HOW IT WORKS FAQ DOCS COMMUNITY CONTRIBUTE LICENSE [!WARNING] People get addicted to Netdata. Once you use it on your systems, there's no going back. WHO WE ARE Netdata is an open source, real time infrastructure monitoring platform. Monitor, detect, and act across your entire infrastructure. Core Advantages: Instant Insights – With Netdata you can access per second metrics and visualizations. Zero Configuration – You can deploy immediately without complex setup. ML Powered –…
read the full NetData overview →
About pyroscope
🎉 Announcement: Pyroscope 2.0 is here! Pyroscope 2.0 makes the new v2 architecture the default. Profiles are written directly to object storage, removing the need for in memory ingesters and local disks simplifying operations and lowering resource usage at scale. Existing v1 deployments can opt in via a flag and migrate without data loss. Read the 2.0 release notes and the v2 architecture overview. Upgrading from v1? See the migration guide. Want the full story? Watch the GrafanaCON 2026 talk Pyroscope 2.0: Continuous Profiling Architecture Deep Dive . What is Grafana Pyroscope? Grafana Pyroscope is a…
read the full pyroscope overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is NetData or pyroscope more popular?
NetData has 81,255 GitHub stars and pyroscope has 11,710. NetData has the larger community by that measure.
Are NetData and pyroscope free?
Both are open source. NetData is licensed under GPL-3.0 and pyroscope under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between NetData and pyroscope?
NetData is written in Go and pyroscope 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 pyroscope?
Choose NetData if you want the larger community (81,255 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose pyroscope if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.