head to head · open source
NetData vs telemetry
NetData has 80,564 GitHub stars, 6,630 forks, 393 open issues and last shipped yesterday. telemetry has 921 stars, 74 forks, 6 open issues and last shipped 28 days ago. NetData leads on adoption by 8,647% (80,564 vs 921 stars). NetData is written in Go under GPL-3.0; telemetry is written in Erlang under Apache-2.0. NetData has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, telemetry 8%. 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 | telemetry | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 81K | ★ 921 |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Erlang |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-08-22 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.6K | ⑂ 74 |
| 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 telemetry if
- You want the telemetry feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Erlang
- You evaluated both and telemetry fits your workflow better
About NetData
Netdata is an open source, real time infrastructure monitoring platform written in Go and released under GPL 3.0, built for operators and lean teams who need per second visibility across Linux, macOS, FreeBSD, and Windows systems.
read the full NetData overview →
About telemetry
Telemetry is a lightweight Erlang and Elixir library for dynamic dispatching of events, aimed at library authors who need to emit instrumentation and at application developers who want to hook custom handlers onto those events.
read the full telemetry overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is NetData or telemetry more popular?
NetData has 80,564 GitHub stars and telemetry has 921. NetData has the larger community by that measure.
Are NetData and telemetry free?
Both are open source. NetData is licensed under GPL-3.0 and telemetry under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between NetData and telemetry?
NetData is written in Go and telemetry in Erlang. 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 telemetry?
Choose NetData if you want the larger community (80,564 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose telemetry if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.