head to head · open source
Apache SkyWalking vs clp
Apache SkyWalking has 24,988 GitHub stars, 6,632 forks, 41 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. clp has 1,091 stars, 95 forks, 493 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Apache SkyWalking leads on adoption by 2,190% (24,988 vs 1,091 stars). Apache SkyWalking is written in Java under Apache-2.0; clp is written in C++ under Apache-2.0. Apache SkyWalking has attracted 27% as many forks as stars, clp 9%. clp was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (logging), 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Apache SkyWalking | clp | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 25K | ★ 1.1K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Java | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-11-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.6K | ⑂ 95 |
| 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 clp if
- You want the clp feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and clp 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 clp
[![Discord][badge discord]][clp community discord] [![Slack][badge slack]][clp community slack] [![CLP on Zulip][badge zulip]][yscope community zulip] YScope's Compressed Log Processor (CLP) compresses your logs, and allows you to search the compressed logs without decompression. CLP supports both JSON logs and unstructured (i.e., free text) logs. It also supports real time log compression within several logging libraries. CLP also includes purpose built web interfaces for searching and viewing the compressed logs. To learn more about it, read our [2021 paper][clp paper 21] about handling unstructured logs and…
More in Infrastructure & Operations
Related comparisons
More Monitoring & Observability projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Monitoring & Observability field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Apache SkyWalking or clp more popular?
Apache SkyWalking has 24,988 GitHub stars and clp has 1,091. Apache SkyWalking has the larger community by that measure.
Are Apache SkyWalking and clp free?
Both are open source. Apache SkyWalking is licensed under Apache-2.0 and clp under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Apache SkyWalking and clp?
Apache SkyWalking is written in Java and clp in C++. 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 clp?
Choose Apache SkyWalking if you want the larger community (24,988 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose clp if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.