head to head · open source
Apache SkyWalking vs codeburn
Apache SkyWalking has 24,958 GitHub stars, 6,633 forks, 41 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. codeburn has 11,114 stars, 843 forks, 29 open issues and last shipped today. Apache SkyWalking leads on adoption by 125% (24,958 vs 11,114 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.
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Side by side
| Apache SkyWalking | codeburn | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 25K | ★ 11K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Java | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.6K | ⑂ 843 |
| 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 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
About Apache SkyWalking
Apache SkyWalking is an open source application performance monitoring (APM) system for distributed systems in cloud native architectures, built for teams that run microservices across Kubernetes and container based environments.
read the full Apache SkyWalking overview →
About codeburn
CodeBurn is a free, open source, local first tool that tracks AI coding token usage and cost across 41 tools and agents, including Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Gemini, and Grok. It is written in TypeScript, licensed under MIT, and lives in the developer tools and observability ecosystem as a command line utility with optional desktop surfaces. Every surface reads the session files that the supported tools already write to disk, so CodeBurn acts as one source of truth rather than a separate collection layer.
read the full codeburn overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Apache SkyWalking or codeburn more popular?
Apache SkyWalking has 24,958 GitHub stars and codeburn has 11,114. 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 (24,958 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose codeburn if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.