Netdata Fair Use Policy
Updated Effective Date: 2-April-2025
This Fair Usage Policy (“Policy”) outlines the principles of fair use for Netdata Cloud services, applying to various plans including the free Community plan and the Homelab plan. The purpose of this Policy is to ensure that Netdata Cloud remains available, reliable, and sustainable for all users by preventing disproportionate consumption of shared resources. For the Homelab plan, it specifically ensures eligibility and adherence to non-commercial use cases as detailed below (“Prohibition of Commercial Use”). For the Community plan, it addresses resource usage relative to the plan’s intended scope and limitations (“Community Plan Usage”).
Eligibility
To qualify for a “Homelab plan”, users must self-certify their status as a home user or student when signing up for the plan. We trust our users to act in good faith and provide accurate information about their eligibility. Inaccurate information may lead to a violation of the “Policy” and trigger the “Escalation Process”.
Prohibition of Commercial Use
The “Homelab plan” is intended exclusively for non-commercial use by home users and/or students. Users monitoring their infrastructure and generating revenue or saving operational expenses directly or indirectly through the use of our product are not eligible for the “Homelab plan” and must subscribe to one of our business plans.
Commercial use includes, but is not limited to: Monitoring a company’s or organization’s infrastructure, Providing services to customers for a fee, Using the service within a business or organizational context, Integrating Netdata into a product or service that is sold or offered for a fee.
Community Plan Usage
The free Community plan is designed to provide individuals and small teams with core monitoring capabilities for a limited number of nodes, featuring a visualization limit of 5 nodes at any given time within Netdata Cloud. While we encourage exploration and use within these boundaries, the Community plan relies on shared infrastructure resources.
Connecting a number of nodes significantly exceeding the scale appropriate for the intended use of the free tier (even if not all nodes are visualized simultaneously) constitutes unfair usage. Such excessive connections can consume a disproportionate share of backend resources (including data ingestion, processing and alert notification handling), incurring substantial infrastructure costs for Netdata and potentially impacting service availability or performance for the broader user community.
We monitor aggregated, non-personal usage patterns, including the number of connected nodes per Space, to ensure fair resource allocation and identify usage vastly exceeding typical Community plan patterns. Accounts exhibiting such excessive connection patterns may be subject to the “Escalation Process”.
Usage Guidelines
For the Homelab plan, our intention is to provide maximum freedom and flexibility by granting unrestricted access to many features. Instead of imposing strict feature restrictions, we monitor Homelab account usage based on multiple indicators to determine if a user is engaging in commercial activity. Factors considered include, but are not limited to, the number of nodes monitored, the number of rooms created, the number of users invited, and the type of alert notification integrations enabled. We reserve the right to modify, update, and change these factors at any time to identify potential abuse of the Homelab plan.
Furthermore, for all plans, including the Community plan, we monitor overall resource consumption patterns relative to the plan’s scope to ensure the sustainability of our services.
Pricing
The “Homelab plan” will have its specific pricing conditions and will be independent of the business plans. For full details on pricing please checkout our pricing page. (The Community plan is free, subject to the usage conditions outlined in this Policy).
Case-by-Case Evaluation
We reserve the right to evaluate each user’s compliance with this “Policy” on a case-by-case basis, taking into account the unique circumstances and usage patterns of each account and the specific plan they are using.
Periodic Reviews
We may conduct periodic reviews of account usage across different plans (Community, Homelab, Business) to ensure compliance with this “Policy” and to identify instances of commercial use on non-commercial plans or excessive resource consumption.
Escalation Process
If we determine, in our sole discretion, that a user’s account usage violates this Policy (e.g., commercial use on a Homelab plan, excessive resource consumption on the Community plan relative to its intended scope, or other misuse), we may take appropriate action. This includes, but is not limited to:
- Communicating with the user to understand their use case and requirements.
- Requesting additional information regarding usage patterns or eligibility (for Homelab plan).
- Requesting the user reduce their resource consumption (e.g., decrease the number of connected nodes on the Community plan) to align with fair usage expectations.
- Requiring the user to transition to an appropriate paid plan (Business or Homelab, if eligible).
- Implementing technical limitations or throttling on connections if usage remains excessive and unresponsive to communication.
- Temporarily or permanently suspending access to certain features or the entire account, particularly if the user is unresponsive to communication attempts or fails to bring usage into compliance.
- For Homelab plan users found engaging in commercial activity, requiring transition to a Business plan or potentially downgrading them to a restricted Community plan if usage volume is low but still commercial.
Modifications and Termination
We reserve the right to modify, suspend, or terminate access to any plan (including Community and Homelab) if we determine, in our sole discretion, that a user’s account usage violates this Policy, if usage disproportionately impacts our shared infrastructure, if the user fails to provide requested information, or fails to cooperate during an escalation process.
Updates and Amendments
We may update or amend this “Policy” at any time, and we will notify users of any significant changes. Continued use of Netdata Cloud services constitutes acceptance of any such updates or amendments.
Data Privacy
We prioritize the utmost care in handling your data privacy. It’s important to note that any information collected during the evaluation process does not include any metrics data related to your systems. We want to assure you that our data collection practices strictly adhere to our Privacy Policy. Your trust is paramount, and we are committed to maintaining the confidentiality and security of your information in compliance with relevant privacy laws. If you have any concerns or questions regarding your privacy, please refer to our Privacy Policy.
By using Netdata Cloud services, you agree to comply with this Fair Usage Policy. Failure to comply with this “Policy” may result in the suspension or termination of your access to the relevant plan or associated Netdata Cloud services.
Disclaimer
Netdata Cloud plans, including the “Homelab plan” and “Community plan”, are provided at the discretion of Netdata. We reserve the right to refuse or limit service to anyone for violations of this Policy or for any reason not prohibited by law. This discretionary provision ensures that we can maintain the integrity, sustainability, and performance of Netdata Cloud for all users. We are committed to fair and responsible usage, and decisions regarding service provision are made with the best interests of our user community in mind. If you have any questions or concerns about this disclaimer or Policy, feel free to reach out to us for clarification.