head to head · open source
Apache SkyWalking vs 0xtools
Apache SkyWalking has 24,988 GitHub stars, 6,632 forks, 41 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. 0xtools has 1,826 stars, 134 forks, 17 open issues and last shipped 12 months ago. Apache SkyWalking leads on adoption by 1,268% (24,988 vs 1,826 stars). Apache SkyWalking is written in Java under Apache-2.0; 0xtools is written in Python under GPL-2.0. Apache SkyWalking has attracted 27% as many forks as stars, 0xtools 7%. Apache SkyWalking was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (ebpf, observability), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Apache SkyWalking | 0xtools | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 25K | ★ 1.8K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | Java | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2025-11-25 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.6K | ⑂ 134 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Apache SkyWalking if
- You weight community size — 25K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick 0xtools if
- You want the 0xtools feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and 0xtools fits your workflow better
About Apache SkyWalking
Apache SkyWalking ========== SkyWalking : an APM (Application Performance Monitoring) system, especially designed for microservices, cloud native and container based architectures. Abstract SkyWalking is an open source APM system that provides monitoring, tracing and diagnosing capabilities for distributed systems in Cloud Native architectures. Distributed Tracing End to end distributed tracing. Service topology analysis, service centric observability and APIs dashboards. Agents for your stack Java, .Net Core, PHP, NodeJS, Golang, LUA, Rust, C++, Client JavaScript and Python agents with active development and…
read the full Apache SkyWalking overview →
About 0xtools
xCapture v3.0.3 By Tanel Poder 2025 10 23 This is the first ever release of 0x.tools xCapture tool that is built with modern eBPF ! My previous tools and prototypes were using either bcc , bpftrace or were just sampling and aggregating thread level info from /proc files. Announcing xCapture v3: Linux Performance Analysis with Modern eBPF and DuckDB xtop: Dimensional Performance Analysis of Sampled Thread Activity Requirements Modern eBPF means libbpf , CORE , BTF , BPF iterators , etc. I'll write about my learning journey with proper thank you notes soon. In practice this means you'll need to be on a Linux…
read the full 0xtools overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Apache SkyWalking or 0xtools more popular?
Apache SkyWalking has 24,988 GitHub stars and 0xtools has 1,826. Apache SkyWalking has the larger community by that measure.
Are Apache SkyWalking and 0xtools free?
Both are open source. Apache SkyWalking is licensed under Apache-2.0 and 0xtools under GPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Apache SkyWalking and 0xtools?
Apache SkyWalking is written in Java and 0xtools in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Apache SkyWalking or 0xtools?
Choose Apache SkyWalking if you want the larger community (24,988 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose 0xtools if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.