head to head · open source
NetData vs RedELK
NetData has 81,255 GitHub stars, 6,717 forks, 393 open issues and last shipped yesterday. RedELK has 2,686 stars, 388 forks, 13 open issues and last shipped yesterday. NetData leads on adoption by 2,925% (81,255 vs 2,686 stars). NetData is written in Go under GPL-3.0; RedELK is written in Python under BSD-3-Clause. NetData has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, RedELK 14%. 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.
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Side by side
| NetData | RedELK | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 81K | ★ 2.7K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | BSD-3-Clause |
| Written in | Go | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.7K | ⑂ 388 |
| 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 RedELK if
- You want the RedELK 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 RedELK 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 RedELK
RedELK The Red Team's SIEM a tool for Red Teams for tracking and alarming about Blue Team activities as well as enhanced usability in long term operations. 1. Enhanced usability and overview for the red team operators by creating a central location where all relevant operational logs from multiple teamservers are collected and enriched. This is great for historic searching within the operation as well as giving a read only view on the operation (e.g. for the White Team). Especially useful for multi scenario, multi teamserver, multi member and multi month operations. Also, super easy ways for viewing all…
read the full RedELK overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is NetData or RedELK more popular?
NetData has 81,255 GitHub stars and RedELK has 2,686. NetData has the larger community by that measure.
Are NetData and RedELK free?
Both are open source. NetData is licensed under GPL-3.0 and RedELK under BSD-3-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between NetData and RedELK?
NetData is written in Go and RedELK 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 RedELK?
Choose NetData if you want the larger community (81,255 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose RedELK if its feature set, stack or BSD-3-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.