Netdata vs Glances: Which System Monitor?

Quick Verdict

Netdata is the better choice for most self-hosters. It provides real-time monitoring with built-in historical data, alerting, and beautiful dashboards — all in a single container. Glances is better suited as a quick system overview tool when you need minimal resource usage and don’t need data retention.

Updated March 2026: Verified with latest Docker images and configurations.

Overview

Netdata is a comprehensive monitoring platform that collects thousands of metrics per second, stores historical data, and includes pre-configured alerts for common issues. It launched in 2016 and has grown into one of the most popular open-source monitoring tools with 70,000+ GitHub stars.

Glances is a lightweight system monitoring tool that shows CPU, memory, disk, network, and process data in a real-time dashboard. Built in Python, it started as a top replacement for the terminal and added a web UI over time. It’s simpler and lighter than Netdata but offers fewer features.

Feature Comparison

Feature	Netdata	Glances
Real-time metrics	Yes (1-second resolution)	Yes (3-second default)
Historical data	Yes (built-in time-series DB)	No (real-time only)
Alerting	Yes (pre-configured + custom)	No
Web dashboard	Yes (interactive, zoomable charts)	Yes (basic grid layout)
REST API	Yes (comprehensive)	Yes (full system data)
Docker container monitoring	Yes (per-container metrics)	Yes (via docker.sock)
GPU monitoring	Yes (Nvidia, AMD)	Yes (Nvidia, via full image)
Disk health (S.M.A.R.T.)	Yes	No
Process monitoring	Yes	Yes
Network monitoring	Yes (per-interface, per-app)	Yes (per-interface)
Custom dashboards	Yes (Netdata Cloud or Grafana export)	No
Prometheus export	Yes	Yes
InfluxDB export	Yes	Yes
Multi-server monitoring	Yes (Netdata Cloud, free tier)	Limited (manual setup)
Authentication	Yes (built-in)	Optional (password flag)
Mobile responsive	Yes	Partially
Plugins/extensions	800+ collectors	~40 plugins
License	GPLv3	LGPLv3

Installation Complexity

Netdata

services:
  netdata:
    image: netdata/netdata:v2.9.0
    container_name: netdata
    restart: unless-stopped
    pid: host
    network_mode: host
    cap_add:
      - SYS_PTRACE
      - SYS_ADMIN
    security_opt:
      - apparmor:unconfined
    volumes:
      - netdata_config:/etc/netdata
      - netdata_lib:/var/lib/netdata
      - netdata_cache:/var/cache/netdata
      - /etc/passwd:/host/etc/passwd:ro
      - /etc/group:/host/etc/group:ro
      - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
      - /proc:/host/proc:ro
      - /sys:/host/sys:ro
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro

volumes:
  netdata_config:
  netdata_lib:
  netdata_cache:

More complex setup — requires elevated capabilities and multiple host mounts. But this gives you comprehensive monitoring out of the box.

Glances

services:
  glances:
    image: nicolargo/glances:4.5.2
    container_name: glances
    restart: unless-stopped
    pid: host
    environment:
      - GLANCES_OPT=-w
    ports:
      - "61208:61208"
    volumes:
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro
      - /etc/os-release:/etc/os-release:ro

Simpler setup — fewer mounts, no special capabilities. Trade-off: fewer metrics collected.

Winner: Glances for simplicity. Netdata requires more configuration but delivers significantly more features.

Performance and Resource Usage

Metric	Netdata	Glances
RAM (idle)	150-300 MB	50-100 MB
CPU (idle)	2-5%	1-3%
Disk usage	500 MB - 2 GB (historical data)	~150 MB (image only)
Docker image size	~250 MB	~150 MB (minimal), ~400 MB (full)
Metrics collected	2,000+ per second	~50-100
Data retention	14 days (configurable)	None

Netdata uses more resources because it’s doing more — collecting thousands of metrics and storing time-series data. Glances is lighter because it only reads current state without retention.

Dashboard Quality

Netdata provides an interactive web dashboard with zoomable time-series charts, drill-down capabilities, and pre-organized metric groups. You can zoom into a 30-minute window to investigate a CPU spike, then zoom back out to see the full day. Charts update in real-time at 1-second resolution.

Glances provides a functional grid showing current values. It updates every 3 seconds and shows the latest reading — there’s no history, no charts, and no drill-down. Think of it as htop in a browser.

Winner: Netdata by a wide margin. The dashboard is the primary reason to choose Netdata.

Alerting and Notifications

Netdata ships with hundreds of pre-configured health alerts: high CPU, low disk space, high memory, excessive disk I/O, service failures, and more. Notifications go to email, Slack, Discord, PagerDuty, Telegram, and dozens of other channels. Custom alerts use a simple configuration syntax.

Glances has no alerting. You can set thresholds that change the color of values in the web UI (green/yellow/red), but there are no notifications. If your disk fills at 3 AM, Glances won’t tell you.

Winner: Netdata. Alerting is essential for production monitoring.

Use Cases

Choose Netdata If…

• You want comprehensive monitoring with historical data and alerting
• You need to investigate past incidents (what happened at 2 AM?)
• You monitor multiple servers (Netdata Cloud aggregates them)
• You want pre-built alerts that work out of the box
• You need detailed per-container Docker metrics
• You plan to integrate with Grafana for custom dashboards

Choose Glances If…

• You want a quick overview of system health with minimal setup
• Resource usage is a concern (very low footprint)
• You only need real-time data, not historical
• You’re running on a Raspberry Pi or low-power device
• You want a simple REST API for scripting
• You need a temporary monitoring solution during debugging

Final Verdict

Netdata is the better monitoring tool for self-hosters who want a complete solution. It does everything Glances does and more — historical data, alerting, interactive charts, multi-server support. The extra resource usage (150-300 MB RAM vs 50-100 MB) is a fair trade for the features you get.

Glances fills a different niche: it’s a system overview tool, not a monitoring platform. Use it when you want a lightweight, quick-to-deploy snapshot of what’s happening right now. Many self-hosters run both — Netdata for ongoing monitoring and alerting, Glances on low-power devices where Netdata is too heavy.

If you’re choosing one, choose Netdata. If you need enterprise-grade monitoring with custom dashboards, add Grafana and Prometheus to the stack.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can Netdata and Glances run on the same server?

Yes. They monitor different things at different depths and don’t conflict. A common setup is Netdata for long-term monitoring with alerting and Glances as a quick SSH-accessible overview. They use different ports (19999 for Netdata, 61208 for Glances).

Does Netdata send data to the cloud?

By default, Netdata connects to Netdata Cloud for multi-server dashboards. You can disable this entirely by setting enabled = no in the [cloud] section of netdata.conf. All monitoring continues to work locally without cloud connectivity.

Can Glances store historical data?

Not natively. Glances shows real-time data only. However, you can export metrics to InfluxDB or Prometheus using Glances’ export plugins, then query historical data through those systems. This adds complexity that Netdata handles out of the box.

How much disk space does Netdata use for historical data?

With default settings, Netdata’s built-in time-series database (dbengine) uses about 256 MB of disk per day per server. The default retention is configurable — 14 days uses roughly 2-4 GB. You can tune dbengine multihost disk space in netdata.conf to cap it.

Is Glances suitable for monitoring multiple servers?

Glances supports a client-server mode where remote instances expose data via API, and a central Glances instance can display them. It works but requires manual configuration per server. Netdata Cloud (free tier) or Grafana dashboards are better for multi-server monitoring at scale.

Which is better for a Raspberry Pi?

Glances. At 50-100 MB RAM versus Netdata’s 150-300 MB, Glances leaves more headroom for the services you’re actually monitoring. On a Pi 4 with 4 GB RAM the difference is negligible, but on a Pi 3 or Pi Zero, Glances’ lighter footprint matters.

Related

• How to Self-Host Netdata
• How to Self-Host Glances
• Best Self-Hosted Monitoring Tools
• Grafana vs Netdata
• Netdata vs Beszel
• Self-Hosted Alternatives to Datadog
• Docker Compose Basics