head to head · open source
NetData vs whisper
NetData has 80,564 GitHub stars, 6,630 forks, 393 open issues and last shipped yesterday. whisper has 1,261 stars, 322 forks, 8 open issues and last shipped 10 months ago. NetData leads on adoption by 6,289% (80,564 vs 1,261 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 26%. 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 | whisper | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 81K | ★ 1.3K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2025-12-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.6K | ⑂ 322 |
| 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
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 whisper
Whisper is the file based time series database library at the storage layer of Graphite, built for operators and developers who need to record numeric metrics over time as plain files on disk rather than in a separate database server.
read the full whisper overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is NetData or whisper more popular?
NetData has 80,564 GitHub stars and whisper has 1,261. 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 (80,564 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.