head to head · open source
NetData vs Uptrace
NetData has 80,561 GitHub stars, 6,630 forks, 393 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Uptrace has 4,286 stars, 215 forks, 52 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. NetData leads on adoption by 1,780% (80,561 vs 4,286 stars). NetData is written in Go under GPL-3.0; Uptrace is written in Go under AGPL-3.0. NetData has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, Uptrace 5%. 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 | Uptrace | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 81K | ★ 4.3K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-08-13 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.6K | ⑂ 215 |
| 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 Uptrace if
- You want the Uptrace feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and Uptrace 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 Uptrace
Uptrace is open source APM platform for modern applications. It sits in Infrastructure & Operations / Monitoring & Observability ecosystem. It supports OpenTelemetry traces, metrics, logs. It gives one interface for application monitoring, distributed tracing, performance monitoring, and log inspection. README says it comes with query builder, rich dashboards, alerting rules, notifications, and integrations for most languages and frameworks. It is written in Go and licensed AGPL 3.0.
read the full Uptrace overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is NetData or Uptrace more popular?
NetData has 80,561 GitHub stars and Uptrace has 4,286. NetData has the larger community by that measure.
Are NetData and Uptrace free?
Both are open source. NetData is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Uptrace under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between NetData and Uptrace?
NetData is written in Go and Uptrace 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 Uptrace?
Choose NetData if you want the larger community (80,561 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Uptrace if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.