Netdata vs VictoriaMetrics
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted monitoring & status options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Netdata
Real-time per-second infrastructure monitoring
VS
VictoriaMetrics
Fast, cost-effective time series database and monitoring solution
| Feature | Netdata | VictoriaMetrics |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 100 · Excellent | 95 · Excellent |
| Category | Monitoring & Status | Monitoring & Status |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Go | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal, kubernetes | docker, kubernetes, helm |
| GitHub stars | ★ 80,637 | ★ 17,760 |
| First released | 2013 | 2018 |
| Replaces | Datadog, New Relic | Datadog, Grafana Cloud |
What are Netdata and VictoriaMetrics?
Netdata
Netdata is a real-time monitoring agent that collects thousands of metrics per second and visualizes them with zero configuration. It targets administrators who want instant, granular system insight. It is deployed via Docker or native packages.
- Per-second real-time metrics
- Zero-configuration auto-discovery
- Built-in anomaly detection
- Thousands of collectors
VictoriaMetrics
VictoriaMetrics is a fast, cost-effective, and scalable monitoring solution and time series database. It is a drop-in replacement for Prometheus storage with lower resource usage and a high-performance query engine.
- Low memory footprint
- MetricsQL query language
- Single-binary or cluster mode
- Prometheus-compatible
Netdata vs VictoriaMetrics: key differences
Both projects are written in Go. Licensing differs — GPL-3.0 for Netdata versus Apache-2.0 for VictoriaMetrics. Netdata is the more established project (first released 2013), while VictoriaMetrics arrived in 2018. Netdata has the considerably larger community, at 80,637 GitHub stars versus 17,760.
Why pick each one
Choose Netdata if…
- Instant insight out of the box
- Beautiful real-time charts
- Easy install
Watch out for
- Long retention needs tuning
- Cloud features are commercial
Choose VictoriaMetrics if…
- Excellent compression and speed
- Easy single-binary deployment
Watch out for
- MetricsQL differs slightly from PromQL
- Smaller ecosystem than Prometheus
Frequently asked questions
Is Netdata or VictoriaMetrics better?
Netdata is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider VictoriaMetrics if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Netdata and VictoriaMetrics free and open-source?
Yes. Netdata is licensed under GPL-3.0 and VictoriaMetrics under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Netdata and VictoriaMetrics with Docker?
Netdata: yes. VictoriaMetrics: yes.