head to head · open source
Apache SkyWalking vs aya
Apache SkyWalking has 24,988 GitHub stars, 6,632 forks, 41 open issues and last shipped yesterday. aya has 4,892 stars, 484 forks, 201 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Apache SkyWalking leads on adoption by 411% (24,988 vs 4,892 stars). Apache SkyWalking is written in Java under Apache-2.0; aya is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. Apache SkyWalking has attracted 27% as many forks as stars, aya 10%. aya 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 | aya | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 25K | ★ 4.9K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Java | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.6K | ⑂ 484 |
| 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 aya if
- You want the aya feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and aya 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 aya
[![Crates.io][crates badge]][crates url] ![License][license badge] [![Build status][build badge]][build url] [![Book][book badge]][book url] [![Gurubase][gurubase badge]][gurubase url] [crates badge]: [crates url]: [license badge]: [build badge]: [build url]: [book badge]: [book url]: [gurubase badge]: [gurubase url]: API Documentation [![Unreleased Documentation][git docs badge]][git api docs] [![Documentation][api docs badge]][api docs] [git docs badge]: [git api docs]: [api docs badge]: [api docs]: Community [![Discord][discord badge]][chat url] [![Awesome][awesome badge]][awesome aya] Join [the conversation…
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Frequently asked questions
Is Apache SkyWalking or aya more popular?
Apache SkyWalking has 24,988 GitHub stars and aya has 4,892. Apache SkyWalking has the larger community by that measure.
Are Apache SkyWalking and aya free?
Both are open source. Apache SkyWalking is licensed under Apache-2.0 and aya under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Apache SkyWalking and aya?
Apache SkyWalking is written in Java and aya in Rust. 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 aya?
Choose Apache SkyWalking if you want the larger community (24,988 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose aya if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.