head to head · open source

Apache SkyWalking vs codeburn

Apache SkyWalking has 24,988 GitHub stars, 6,632 forks, 41 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. codeburn has 11,677 stars, 907 forks, 45 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Apache SkyWalking leads on adoption by 114% (24,988 vs 11,677 stars). Apache SkyWalking is written in Java under Apache-2.0; codeburn is written in TypeScript under MIT. Apache SkyWalking has attracted 27% as many forks as stars, codeburn 8%. codeburn was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (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.

Apache SkyWalking ★ 25K codeburn ★ 12K category Infrastructure & Operations

← all 20902 open source comparisons

Side by side

Apache SkyWalking codeburn
GitHub stars ★ 25K ★ 12K
License Apache-2.0 MIT
Written in Java TypeScript
Last push 2026-11-03 2026-11-03
Forks ⑂ 6.6K ⑂ 907
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

full Apache SkyWalking profile →

pick codeburn if

  • You want the codeburn feature set and don't need the biggest community
  • You prefer the MIT license terms
  • Your stack matches TypeScript
  • You evaluated both and codeburn fits your workflow better

full codeburn profile →

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 codeburn

See where your AI spend goes. If CodeBurn shows you something your bill never did, star the repo so other developers find it, and consider sponsoring to keep 41 integrations honest. npx codeburn To keep it: npm install g codeburn or brew install codeburn . Needs Node.js 22.13+. Desktop app 0.9.25. The macOS builds are signed with a Developer ID and notarized by Apple. The problem Your bill gives you a month total. It does not break that down by project, by model or by task, and it does not show which part of it was wasted. Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and the rest each write a session file every time you use them…

read the full codeburn overview →

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 codeburn more popular?

Apache SkyWalking has 24,988 GitHub stars and codeburn has 11,677. Apache SkyWalking has the larger community by that measure.

Are Apache SkyWalking and codeburn free?

Both are open source. Apache SkyWalking is licensed under Apache-2.0 and codeburn under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.

What is the difference between Apache SkyWalking and codeburn?

Apache SkyWalking is written in Java and codeburn in TypeScript. 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 codeburn?

Choose Apache SkyWalking if you want the larger community (24,988 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose codeburn if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.