Netdata vs Portainer CE

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted apps from related categories — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

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FeatureNetdataPortainer CE
CategoryMonitoring & StatusDashboards & Startpages
LicenseGPL-3.0Zlib
LanguageGoTypeScript
Setup difficultyEasyEasy
Min. RAM256 MB256 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metal, kubernetesdocker, kubernetes, helm
GitHub stars★ 80,075★ 38,184
First released20132016
ReplacesDatadog, New RelicRancher, Docker Desktop

Why pick each one

Choose Netdata if…

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

Choose Portainer CE if…

  • Very beginner-friendly
  • Broad orchestrator support
Portainer CE details

Frequently asked questions

Is Netdata or Portainer CE 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 Netdata and Portainer CE free and open-source?

Yes. Netdata is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Portainer CE under Zlib. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Netdata and Portainer CE with Docker?

Netdata: yes. Portainer CE: yes.

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