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:4.5.1
    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.

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