Glances vs Netdata: Self-Hosted Monitoring Compared

Quick Verdict

Netdata is the better choice for most self-hosters. It gives you real-time dashboards with thousands of metrics out of the box, automatic anomaly detection, and container monitoring — all without writing a single config file. Glances is the tool you reach for when you want a fast, minimal system overview without running a full monitoring stack. They solve different problems at different scales.

What These Tools Actually Are

These are both system monitoring tools, but they sit at opposite ends of the complexity spectrum.

Glances is a cross-platform monitoring tool written in Python. Think of it as htop on steroids — it shows CPU, memory, disk, network, Docker containers, and processes in a single terminal view or lightweight web UI. It’s designed to give you a quick snapshot of system health, not to store historical data or alert you at 3 AM.

Netdata is a full observability platform. It collects thousands of metrics per second, stores them in a custom time-series database, renders interactive dashboards, and can send alerts via email, Slack, PagerDuty, and dozens of other integrations. It auto-detects nearly everything running on your system and starts charting it immediately.

Feature Comparison

Feature	Glances	Netdata
Real-time metrics	Yes	Yes
Historical data retention	No (current snapshot only)	Yes (days to years, configurable)
Web dashboard	Basic (single-page)	Full interactive dashboards
Terminal UI	Yes (primary interface)	No
Alerting / notifications	No built-in alerting	Yes (email, Slack, PagerDuty, Discord, 90+)
Anomaly detection	No	Yes (ML-based, built-in)
Docker container monitoring	Yes	Yes (per-container metrics)
Number of metrics collected	~50 system metrics	2,000+ out of the box
Plugin / collector ecosystem	Limited (Python plugins)	800+ data collectors
API	REST API (JSON export)	Full REST API + streaming
Configuration required	Minimal	Zero-config for most use cases
Multi-node monitoring	Basic (client/server mode)	Yes (Netdata Cloud or parent-child)
License	LGPL-3.0	GPL-3.0

Docker Compose: Glances

Glances runs as a single container with no dependencies. Mount the host filesystem read-only so it can see system metrics.

Create a docker-compose.yml:

services:
  glances:
    image: nicolargo/glances:4.5.0.1-full
    container_name: glances
    restart: unless-stopped
    pid: host
    network_mode: host
    read_only: true
    environment:
      - GLANCES_OPT=-w
      - TZ=UTC
    volumes:
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro
      - /:/rootfs:ro
      - /etc/os-release:/etc/os-release:ro
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD", "curl", "-f", "http://localhost:61208/api/4/status"]
      interval: 30s
      timeout: 10s
      retries: 3

Start it:

docker compose up -d

Access the web UI at http://your-server:61208. The API is available at the same port under /api/4/.

Key configuration notes:

• pid: host lets Glances see all host processes, not just containerized ones.
• network_mode: host gives accurate network interface metrics. Without it, you only see the container’s virtual network.
• GLANCES_OPT=-w starts the web server mode. Without this flag, Glances runs in terminal mode only.
• The read_only: true flag is a security hardening measure — Glances only needs to read system state, never write.
• Mount /rootfs to give Glances visibility into disk usage on the host.

Docker Compose: Netdata

Netdata needs more host access than Glances because it monitors deeper — kernel metrics, per-process resource accounting, log files, and cgroups.

Create a docker-compose.yml:

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:
      - netdataconfig:/etc/netdata
      - netdatalib:/var/lib/netdata
      - netdatacache:/var/cache/netdata
      - /:/host/root:ro,rslave
      - /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
      - /etc/os-release:/host/etc/os-release:ro
      - /var/log:/host/var/log:ro
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro

volumes:
  netdataconfig:
  netdatalib:
  netdatacache:

Start it:

docker compose up -d

Access the dashboard at http://your-server:19999.

Key configuration notes:

• SYS_PTRACE enables per-process monitoring through /proc. SYS_ADMIN allows cgroup access for container metrics. Both are required for full monitoring.
• apparmor:unconfined is needed on systems running AppArmor (Ubuntu default). Without it, Netdata cannot read certain kernel metrics.
• The three named volumes (netdataconfig, netdatalib, netdatacache) persist configuration, metric history, and cache across container restarts. Losing netdatalib means losing your historical data.
• Mounting /proc, /sys, and the root filesystem gives Netdata the same visibility as if it were running directly on the host.
• The Docker socket mount enables container-level monitoring — CPU, memory, and network per container.

Performance and Resource Usage

This is where the difference matters most. A monitoring tool that consumes significant resources defeats its own purpose.

Metric	Glances	Netdata
RAM usage (idle)	~50-80 MB	~150-300 MB
RAM usage (active)	~80-120 MB	~300-500 MB
CPU usage (idle)	<1%	1-3%
CPU usage (active)	1-2%	3-5%
Disk usage	~50 MB (container only)	500 MB - 2 GB+ (metric storage)
Collection interval	3 seconds (default)	1 second (default)
Startup time	2-3 seconds	10-15 seconds

Glances is roughly 3-5x lighter than Netdata across the board. On a Raspberry Pi 4 or a small VPS with 2 GB of RAM, that difference matters. Glances barely registers on the system, while Netdata’s per-second collection and ML-based anomaly detection consume a noticeable slice of resources.

Netdata’s disk usage grows over time because it stores historical metrics. The default retention is a few days at per-second granularity, but you can extend it to weeks or months. Glances stores nothing — every refresh is a fresh snapshot.

If you’re monitoring a server that’s already close to its resource limits, Glances is the safer choice. If you have headroom and want the full picture, Netdata’s overhead is reasonable for what it provides.

Setup Experience

Glances: Pull the image, start the container, open port 61208. You’re done. The web UI shows everything on a single page. There’s nothing to configure unless you want to customize thresholds or enable specific plugins. The whole experience takes under two minutes.

Netdata: Pull the image, start the container, open port 19999. You’re also done — Netdata auto-discovers everything on the system and starts collecting immediately. The difference is what you get: an interactive dashboard with hundreds of charts organized by category, zoom controls, and a time picker. The zero-config experience is genuinely impressive for the depth of monitoring it provides.

Both tools achieve “working dashboard in under five minutes.” Netdata just gives you far more to look at when you get there.

Where Each Tool Falls Short

Glances limitations:

• No historical data. Close the browser tab and the data is gone. You cannot look back at what happened two hours ago.
• No alerting. If CPU spikes at 3 AM, you won’t know until you open Glances and see the aftermath.
• The web UI is functional but sparse. It’s a table of metrics, not interactive charts.
• Limited multi-node support. The client-server mode exists but is clunky compared to proper monitoring platforms.

Netdata limitations:

• Resource consumption is higher than it looks. The ML features, per-second collection, and metric storage add up, especially on constrained hardware.
• The dashboard can feel overwhelming. Hundreds of charts on first load is powerful but noisy for someone who just wants to check if the server is healthy.
• Netdata Cloud (the SaaS component for multi-node) is free but proprietary. If you want fully self-hosted multi-node, you need to configure parent-child streaming yourself.
• Updates can occasionally break custom configurations. Pin your version and test upgrades before applying them to production.

Use Cases

Choose Glances If…

• You want a quick “is the server OK?” check without running a full monitoring stack
• Your server has limited resources (1-2 GB RAM, Raspberry Pi, small VPS)
• You already have a monitoring platform (Prometheus, Grafana) and just want a lightweight real-time view
• You prefer terminal-based tools and SSH into your servers regularly
• You’re monitoring a single machine and don’t need historical data or alerts

Choose Netdata If…

• You want real-time dashboards with historical data out of the box
• You need alerting when things go wrong (disk full, high CPU, service down)
• You’re monitoring multiple servers or a fleet of Docker containers
• You want anomaly detection without configuring Prometheus + Grafana + AlertManager
• You prefer a polished web dashboard over a terminal interface
• You want deep visibility into application-level metrics (databases, web servers, message queues)

Running Both

This is not an either/or decision. Some self-hosters run both: Netdata as the primary monitoring platform with alerting and historical data, and Glances as a lightweight terminal tool for quick SSH spot-checks. The combined resource usage is still less than a Prometheus + Grafana stack, and you get complementary capabilities.

Final Verdict

Netdata wins for most self-hosters. The zero-config setup gives you more monitoring depth in five minutes than most people achieve after hours of configuring Prometheus and Grafana. Historical data, built-in alerting, and automatic anomaly detection make it a complete monitoring solution, not just a metrics viewer.

Glances wins on simplicity and efficiency. If you run a single small server and want a quick health check without committing resources to a monitoring platform, Glances does exactly that with almost zero overhead.

For a typical homelab with 2-10 services running on a decent mini PC or NAS, start with Netdata. You’ll appreciate having historical charts the first time something goes wrong at 2 AM and you need to see what happened. Add Glances later if you find yourself wanting a fast terminal-based overview during SSH sessions.

Related

• Best Self-Hosted Monitoring Tools
• How to Self-Host Netdata
• Netdata vs Prometheus
• Netdata vs Beszel
• Docker Compose Basics
• How to Self-Host Glances
• Uptime Kuma vs Netdata