head to head · open source
NetData vs sysstat
NetData has 81,255 GitHub stars, 6,717 forks, 393 open issues and last shipped yesterday. sysstat has 3,384 stars, 492 forks, 75 open issues and last shipped yesterday. NetData leads on adoption by 2,301% (81,255 vs 3,384 stars). NetData is written in Go under GPL-3.0; sysstat is written in C under GPL-2.0. NetData has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, sysstat 15%. NetData was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (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 | sysstat | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 81K | ★ 3.4K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | C |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.7K | ⑂ 492 |
| 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 sysstat if
- You want the sysstat feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You evaluated both and sysstat 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 sysstat
sysstat System performance tools for the Linux operating system (C) 1999 2026 Sebastien GODARD (sysstat (at) orange (dot) fr) Introduction The sysstat package contains various utilities, common to many commercial Unixes, to monitor system performance and usage activity: iostat reports CPU statistics and input/output statistics for block devices and partitions. mpstat reports individual or combined processor related statistics. pidstat reports statistics for Linux tasks (processes) : I/O, CPU, memory, etc. tapestat reports statistics for tape drives connected to the system. cifsiostat reports CIFS statistics…
read the full sysstat overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is NetData or sysstat more popular?
NetData has 81,255 GitHub stars and sysstat has 3,384. NetData has the larger community by that measure.
Are NetData and sysstat free?
Both are open source. NetData is licensed under GPL-3.0 and sysstat under GPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between NetData and sysstat?
NetData is written in Go and sysstat in C. 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 sysstat?
Choose NetData if you want the larger community (81,255 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose sysstat if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.