Glances vs Netdata

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted monitoring & status options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
FeatureGlancesNetdata
CategoryMonitoring & StatusMonitoring & Status
LicenseLGPL-3.0GPL-3.0
LanguagePythonGo
Setup difficultyEasyEasy
Min. RAM128 MB256 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metal, binarydocker, bare-metal, kubernetes
GitHub stars★ 33,269★ 80,075
First released20122013
ReplacesDatadogDatadog, New Relic

Why pick each one

Choose Glances if…

  • Very easy to run
  • Lightweight
  • Good single-host overview
Glances details

Choose Netdata if…

  • Instant insight out of the box
  • Beautiful real-time charts
  • Easy install
Netdata details

Frequently asked questions

Is Glances or Netdata better?

Neither is universally better. Netdata has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are Glances and Netdata free and open-source?

Yes. Glances is licensed under LGPL-3.0 and Netdata under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Glances and Netdata with Docker?

Glances: yes. Netdata: yes.

Related comparisons