head to head · open source
NetData vs whisper
NetData has 81,255 GitHub stars, 6,717 forks, 393 open issues and last shipped yesterday. whisper has 1,260 stars, 320 forks, 8 open issues and last shipped 11 months ago. NetData leads on adoption by 6,349% (81,255 vs 1,260 stars). NetData is written in Go under GPL-3.0; whisper is written in Python under Apache-2.0. NetData has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, whisper 25%. 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| NetData | whisper | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 81K | ★ 1.3K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2025-12-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.7K | ⑂ 320 |
| 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 whisper if
- You want the whisper feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and whisper 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 whisper
Whisper Overview Whisper is one of three components within the Graphite project: 1. Graphite Web, a Django based web application that renders graphs and dashboards 2. The Carbon metric processing daemons 3. The Whisper time series database library Whisper is a fixed size database, similar in design and purpose to RRD (round robin database). It provides fast, reliable storage of numeric data over time. Whisper allows for higher resolution (seconds per point) of recent data to degrade into lower resolutions for long term retention of historical data. Installation, Configuration and Usage Please refer to the…
read the full whisper overview →
More in Infrastructure & Operations
Related comparisons
More Monitoring & Observability projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Monitoring & Observability field.
Frequently asked questions
Is NetData or whisper more popular?
NetData has 81,255 GitHub stars and whisper has 1,260. NetData has the larger community by that measure.
Are NetData and whisper free?
Both are open source. NetData is licensed under GPL-3.0 and whisper under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between NetData and whisper?
NetData is written in Go and whisper in Python. 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 whisper?
Choose NetData if you want the larger community (81,255 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose whisper if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.