head to head · open source
NetData vs skydive
NetData has 81,255 GitHub stars, 6,717 forks, 393 open issues and last shipped yesterday. skydive has 2,808 stars, 416 forks, 119 open issues and last shipped 1.1 years ago. NetData leads on adoption by 2,794% (81,255 vs 2,808 stars). NetData is written in Go under GPL-3.0; skydive is written in Go under Apache-2.0. NetData has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, skydive 15%. 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 | skydive | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 81K | ★ 2.8K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2025-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.7K | ⑂ 416 |
| 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 skydive if
- You want the skydive 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 skydive 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 skydive
Skydive Skydive is an open source real time network topology and protocols analyzer. It aims to provide a comprehensive way of understanding what is happening in the network infrastructure. Skydive agents collect topology information and flows and forward them to a central agent for further analysis. All the information is stored in an Elasticsearch database. Skydive is SDN agnostic but provides SDN drivers in order to enhance the topology and flows information. Key features Captures network topology and flows Full history of network topology and flows Distributed Ability to follow a flow along a path in the…
read the full skydive overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is NetData or skydive more popular?
NetData has 81,255 GitHub stars and skydive has 2,808. NetData has the larger community by that measure.
Are NetData and skydive free?
Both are open source. NetData is licensed under GPL-3.0 and skydive under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between NetData and skydive?
NetData is written in Go and skydive 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 skydive?
Choose NetData if you want the larger community (81,255 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose skydive if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.