why-netdata.md 3.9 KB
Why use Netdata?
Netdata takes a different approach to helping people build extraordinary infrastructure. It was built out of frustration with existing monitoring tools that are too complex, too expensive, and don't help their users actually troubleshoot complex performance and health issues.
Netdata is:
Simple to deploy
- One-line deployment for Linux distributions, plus support for Kubernetes/Docker infrastructures.
- Zero configuration and maintenance required to collect thousands of metrics, every second, from the underlying OS and running applications.
- Prebuilt charts and alarms alert you to common anomalies and performance issues without manual configuration.
- Distributed storage to simplify the cost and complexity of storing metrics data from any number of nodes.
Powerful and scalable
- 1% CPU utilization, a few MB of RAM, and minimal disk I/O to run the monitoring Agent on bare metal, virtual machines, containers, and even IoT devices.
- Per-second granularity for an unlimited number of metrics based on the hardware and applications you're running on your nodes.
- Interoperable exporters let you connect Netdata's per-second metrics with an existing monitoring stack and other time-series databases.
Optimized for troubleshooting
- Visual anomaly detection with a UI/UX that emphasizes the relationships between charts.
- Customizable dashboards to pinpoint correlated metrics, respond to incidents, and help you streamline your workflows.
- Distributed metrics in a centralized interface to assist users or teams trace complex issues between distributed nodes.
Comparison with other monitoring solutions
Netdata offers many benefits over the existing monitoring landscape, whether they're expensive SaaS products or other open-source tools.
| Netdata | Others (open-source and commercial) |
|---|---|
| High resolution metrics (1s granularity) | Low resolution metrics (10s granularity at best) |
| Collects thousands of metrics per node | Collects just a few metrics |
| Fast UI optimized for anomaly detection | UI is good for just an abstract view |
| Long-term, autonomous storage at one-second granularity | Centralized metrics in an expensive data lake at 10s granularity |
| Meaningful presentation, to help you understand the metrics | You have to know the metrics before you start |
| Install and get results immediately | Long sales process and complex installation process |
| Use it for troubleshooting performance problems | Only gathers statistics of past performance |
| Kills the console for tracing performance issues | The console is always required for troubleshooting |
| Requires zero dedicated resources | Require large dedicated resources |
What's next?
Whether you already have a monitoring stack you want to integrate Netdata into, or are building something from the ground-up, you should read more on how Netdata can work either standalone or as an interoperable part of a monitoring stack.