head to head · open source
NetData vs swift-metrics
NetData has 81,255 GitHub stars, 6,717 forks, 393 open issues and last shipped yesterday. swift-metrics has 798 stars, 83 forks, 8 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. NetData leads on adoption by 10,082% (81,255 vs 798 stars). NetData is written in Go under GPL-3.0; swift-metrics is written in Swift under Apache-2.0. NetData has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, swift-metrics 10%. 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 | swift-metrics | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 81K | ★ 798 |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Swift |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-28 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.7K | ⑂ 83 |
| 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 swift-metrics if
- You want the swift-metrics feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Swift
- You evaluated both and swift-metrics 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 swift-metrics
SwiftMetrics A Metrics API package for Swift. Almost all production server software needs to emit metrics information for observability. Because it's unlikely that all parties can agree on one specific metrics backend implementation, this API is designed to establish a standard that can be implemented by various metrics libraries which then post the metrics data to backends like Prometheus, Graphite, publish over statsd, write to disk, etc. This is the beginning of a community driven open source project actively seeking contributions, be it code, documentation, or ideas. Apart from contributing to SwiftMetrics…
read the full swift-metrics overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is NetData or swift-metrics more popular?
NetData has 81,255 GitHub stars and swift-metrics has 798. NetData has the larger community by that measure.
Are NetData and swift-metrics free?
Both are open source. NetData is licensed under GPL-3.0 and swift-metrics under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between NetData and swift-metrics?
NetData is written in Go and swift-metrics in Swift. 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 swift-metrics?
Choose NetData if you want the larger community (81,255 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose swift-metrics if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.