head to head · open source
Apache SkyWalking vs go-grpc-middleware
Apache SkyWalking has 24,988 GitHub stars, 6,632 forks, 41 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. go-grpc-middleware has 6,760 stars, 746 forks, 83 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. Apache SkyWalking leads on adoption by 270% (24,988 vs 6,760 stars). Apache SkyWalking is written in Java under Apache-2.0; go-grpc-middleware is written in Go under Apache-2.0. Apache SkyWalking has attracted 27% as many forks as stars, go-grpc-middleware 11%. 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 | go-grpc-middleware | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 25K | ★ 6.8K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Java | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-10-06 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.6K | ⑂ 746 |
| 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 go-grpc-middleware if
- You want the go-grpc-middleware feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and go-grpc-middleware 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 go-grpc-middleware
Go gRPC Middleware This repository holds gRPC Go Middlewares: interceptors, helpers and utilities. Middleware gRPC Go has support for "interceptors", i.e. middleware that is executed either on the gRPC Server before the request is passed onto the user's application logic, or on the gRPC client either around the user call. It is a perfect way to implement common patterns: auth, logging, tracing, metrics, validation, retries, rate limiting and more, which can be a great generic building blocks that make it easy to build multiple microservices easily. Especially for observability signals (logging, tracing, metrics)…
read the full go-grpc-middleware overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Apache SkyWalking or go-grpc-middleware more popular?
Apache SkyWalking has 24,988 GitHub stars and go-grpc-middleware has 6,760. Apache SkyWalking has the larger community by that measure.
Are Apache SkyWalking and go-grpc-middleware free?
Both are open source. Apache SkyWalking is licensed under Apache-2.0 and go-grpc-middleware under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Apache SkyWalking and go-grpc-middleware?
Apache SkyWalking is written in Java and go-grpc-middleware in Go. 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 go-grpc-middleware?
Choose Apache SkyWalking if you want the larger community (24,988 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose go-grpc-middleware if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.