Netdata
The fastest path to AI-powered full stack observability, even for lean teams.
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What is Netdata?
Netdata is a real-time infrastructure monitoring and observability platform that provides per-second metrics with ML-powered anomaly detection and AI-driven troubleshooting. The open-source agent collects metrics from hundreds of data sources with zero configuration, automatically discovering 800+ integrations for databases, web servers, containers, cloud services, and network devices. Netdata AI investigates issues, explains root causes, and guides fixes in plain English, reducing mean time to resolution by 80%.
Netdata Cloud offers a fully managed SaaS platform with centralized metrics streaming, customizable dashboards, role-based access control, and mobile apps for iOS and Android. The platform supports both cloud and on-premises deployment (Netdata Cloud On Prem) for organizations requiring complete data sovereignty. Metrics stay on-premises while only metadata reaches the cloud, ensuring GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI DSS compliance.
The tool is designed for DevOps teams, SREs, system administrators, and engineers who need instant visibility into their infrastructure without complex setup. It serves companies of all sizes from homelab enthusiasts to enterprises monitoring 10,000+ nodes. Netdata is trusted by 1000+ companies including Falkland Islands Government, TMB Barcelona, Nodecraft, and Codyas.
Netdata pricing
Pricing model: Freemium
Netdata offers a free Community plan for up to 5 nodes with unlimited metrics, logs, and retention on the open-source agent. Business plans start at $4.50/node/month billed annually with a 14-day free trial. Pricing is per-node with unlimited everything else - no per-GB surprises. The paid tiers include Homelab, Business, and Enterprise On-Premise plans. Business plan includes Netdata AI (automated troubleshooting, investigations, reports), RBAC, centralized configuration management, enterprise SSO (Okta, OpenID), SCIM, and infrastructure-wide dashboards. Community plan limits: max 5 active connected nodes, max 1 active custom dashboard, limited alert notifications, limited RBAC roles, and limited events feed history. Refunds available within 14 days of purchase. Volume pricing and annual prepayment options available.
Netdata pros
- Per-second metrics with true real-time monitoring
- Zero configuration with auto-discovered 800+ integrations
- ML anomaly detection on every metric with 99% false positive reduction
- Netdata AI provides automated root cause analysis in plain English
- Open source with 76,000+ GitHub stars and GPLv3+ license
- Metrics stay on-premises with zero data egress
- Per-node pricing with unlimited metrics, logs, users, and retention
- 90% cost reduction compared to Datadog and other commercial solutions
- 80% faster incident resolution and 80% MTTR reduction
- Single pane of glass for metrics, logs, processes, and network connections
- Native iOS and Android mobile apps with real-time alerts
- .scales horizontally to 100,000+ nodes without architecture changes
- Enterprise security with RBAC, SSO (Okta, OpenID), and SCIM support
- Replaces 20+ console tools like top, iostat, netstat with browser interface
- 18 unsupervised ML models train automatically per metric
- Industry-leading storage efficiency at 0.6 bytes per sample
- Air-gap ready and compliance certified for enterprise use
- No PromQL or LogQL required - point-and-click troubleshooting
Netdata cons
- Requires root or admin permissions to install the agent
- Default retention limited without paid plan for long-term historical data
- Community plan limited to 5 nodes and 1 custom dashboard
- Learning curve for advanced features despite zero-config setup
- calore limited visual interface compared to some commercial tools
- Primary focus on infrastructure metrics rather than APM or distributed tracing
- On-prem cloud deployment requires additional infrastructure management
- Some advanced notification integrations only available in paid plans
Frequently asked questions about Netdata
What is Netdata and what does it do?
Netdata is real-time infrastructure observability with per-second metrics, ML anomaly detection, and AI troubleshooting. The open-source agent collects metrics from 800+ integrations with zero configuration, while Netdata AI investigates issues, explains root causes, and guides fixes in plain English. It reduces MTTR by 80% and works from homelabs to 10,000+ node enterprise deployments.
Is Netdata free to use?
Yes, Netdata is free forever with the Community plan. The open-source agent is fully functional with unlimited nodes, metrics, users, and retention. The free SaaS Community plan allows up to 5 active connected nodes and 1 custom dashboard. All core monitoring features are available in the free tier, with paid plans adding enterprise features like RBAC, SSO, and extended retention.
How does Netdata pricing work?
Netdata uses per-node pricing starting at $4.50/node/month (billed annually). You only pay for Netdata Agents you run, not containers they monitor. Billing is based on the maximum number of concurrently running agents throughout the month (p90 over time, excluding 10% of top spikes). Offline or stale nodes are not charged. Unlimited metrics, logs, users, and retention included with no per-GB fees.
Where is my monitoring data stored?
All metric data stays on-premises on your infrastructure. Netdata Cloud never stores your metric data in the cloud - it only streams data ephemerally while you view charts. Only metadata reaches the cloud for the SaaS platform. This ensures complete data sovereignty and compliance with GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI DSS. For complete data isolation, Netdata Cloud On Prem runs the full platform on-premises.
What integrations does Netdata support?
Netdata has 800+ collectors and integrations that are auto-discovered and configured out of the box. This includes databases (MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redis, Elasticsearch), web servers (NGINX, Apache, HAProxy), containers (Docker, Kubernetes), cloud services (AWS, Azure, GCP), operating systems (Linux, Windows, macOS, FreeBSD), network devices via SNMP, and hardware sensors. No manual configuration required.
What is Netdata AI and how does it help?
Netdata AI is an on-call AI co-SRE agent that provides automated root cause analysis, troubleshooting, investigations, and conversations in plain English. It has access to all your actual metrics and explains problems and fixes without requiring PromQL or LogQL. The Business plan includes free AI troubleshooting sessions, with additional sessions purchasable as AI credits. Netdata AI reduces MTTR by 80%.
Can I deploy Netdata completely on-premises?
Yes, Netdata Cloud On Prem allows you to run the full Netdata Cloud platform on-premises for complete data sovereignty and compliance with security policies. It includes all Netdata Cloud features but is fully on-prem. This is designed for large enterprises, governmental organizations, research institutes, and critical infrastructures that require maximum data privacy, security, and customization.
How does Netdata compare to Datadog, Prometheus, or Grafana?
Netdata provides per-second metrics vs 10-30 second averaging in Prometheus, zero configuration vs days/weeks setup for Prometheus+Grafana+ELK, and 90% cost reduction vs Datadog. Unlike commercial tools, Netdata has no per-GB pricing surprises. It unifies metrics, logs, processes, and connections in one interface vs fragmented tools. Netdata is 3rd most starred monitoring project on GitHub with 76,000+ stars.
Does Netdata work with containers and Kubernetes?
Yes, Netdata monitors Docker containers, Kubernetes pods/nodes, and all container runtimes (containerd, Podman, LXC) via Linux cgroups. Containers on a monitored host are included at no extra cost - you only pay for the Netdata Agent running on the host. Collectors monitor CPU, memory, disk I/O, and network for containers. Kubernetes API Server, Kubelet, Kubeproxy, and cluster state are all monitored automatically.
What alerting and notification options does Netdata support?
Netdata includes built-in alerting with 800+ notification channels including Slack, PagerDuty, Microsoft Teams, email, and webhooks. Alert notifications are auto-configured with sensible defaults. The Community plan has limited notification integrations, while paid plans include additional notification mechanisms. Alerts are triggered based on ML-detected anomalies and custom thresholds with instant mobile push notifications via iOS/Android apps.