head to head · open source
NetData vs Zabbix
NetData has 80,561 GitHub stars, 6,630 forks, 393 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Zabbix has 6,382 stars, 1,259 forks, 108 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. NetData leads on adoption by 1,162% (80,561 vs 6,382 stars). NetData is written in Go under GPL-3.0; Zabbix is written in Go Template under AGPL-3.0. NetData has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, Zabbix 20%. NetData was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (alerting), 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.
← all 8884 open source comparisons
Side by side
| NetData | Zabbix | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 81K | ★ 6.4K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go Template |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.6K | ⑂ 1.3K |
| 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 Zabbix if
- You want the Zabbix feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go Template
- You evaluated both and Zabbix 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 Zabbix
Zabbix is an enterprise class, open source distributed monitoring solution that measures the performance and availability of network devices, servers, services, and other IT resources. The project lives in the open source infrastructure monitoring and observability ecosystem, and its source is distributed under the AGPL 3.0 only license, with the repository carrying 6,374 stars and 1,255 forks. It is written using Go Template and is hosted by the Zabbix project at zabbix.com, where the download and documentation entry points are published. The stated scope runs from a simple standalone application through to a la…
read the full Zabbix 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 Zabbix more popular?
NetData has 80,561 GitHub stars and Zabbix has 6,382. NetData has the larger community by that measure.
Are NetData and Zabbix free?
Both are open source. NetData is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Zabbix under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between NetData and Zabbix?
NetData is written in Go and Zabbix in Go Template. 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 Zabbix?
Choose NetData if you want the larger community (80,561 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Zabbix if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.