head to head · open source
Apache SkyWalking vs frostmourne
Apache SkyWalking has 24,958 GitHub stars, 6,633 forks, 41 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. frostmourne has 1,494 stars, 317 forks, 31 open issues and last shipped 5 months ago. Apache SkyWalking leads on adoption by 1,571% (24,958 vs 1,494 stars). Apache SkyWalking is written in Java under Apache-2.0; frostmourne is written in Java under MIT. Apache SkyWalking has attracted 27% as many forks as stars, frostmourne 21%. Apache SkyWalking 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.
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Side by side
| Apache SkyWalking | frostmourne | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 25K | ★ 1.5K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Java | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-04-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.6K | ⑂ 317 |
| 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 frostmourne if
- You want the frostmourne feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and frostmourne 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 frostmourne
Frostmourne（霜之哀伤监控平台）is an MIT licensed, Java based distributed monitoring and alerting system that turns queries against Elasticsearch, Prometheus, SkyWalking, InfluxDB, MySQL/TiDB, ClickHouse, SqlServer and IoTDB data into alarms, and it is built for operations and development teams that already run a log or metrics stack but lack a matching alerting layer.
read the full frostmourne overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Apache SkyWalking or frostmourne more popular?
Apache SkyWalking has 24,958 GitHub stars and frostmourne has 1,494. Apache SkyWalking has the larger community by that measure.
Are Apache SkyWalking and frostmourne free?
Both are open source. Apache SkyWalking is licensed under Apache-2.0 and frostmourne under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Apache SkyWalking and frostmourne?
Apache SkyWalking is written in Java and frostmourne in Java. 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 frostmourne?
Choose Apache SkyWalking if you want the larger community (24,958 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose frostmourne if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.