head to head · open source
Apache SkyWalking vs gofr
Apache SkyWalking has 24,984 GitHub stars, 6,630 forks, 41 open issues and last shipped yesterday. gofr has 20,820 stars, 1,789 forks, 132 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Apache SkyWalking leads on adoption by 20% (24,984 vs 20,820 stars). Apache SkyWalking is written in Java under Apache-2.0; gofr is written in Go under Apache-2.0. Apache SkyWalking has attracted 27% as many forks as stars, gofr 9%. gofr was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (logging, metrics), 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 | gofr | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 25K | ★ 21K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Java | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.6K | ⑂ 1.8K |
| 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 gofr if
- You want the gofr 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 gofr 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 gofr
Go Fr GoFr: An Opinionated Microservice Development Framework Listed in the CNCF Landscape 🎯 Goal GoFr is designed to simplify microservice development , with a key focus on Kubernetes deployment and out of the box observability . While capable of building generic applications, microservices remain at its core. 💡 Key Features 1. Simple API Syntax 2. REST Standards by Default 3. Configuration Management 4. Observability (Logs, Traces, Metrics) 5. Inbuilt Auth Middleware & Custom Middleware Support 6. gRPC Support 7. HTTP Service with Circuit Breaker Support 8. Pub/Sub 9. Health Check for All Datasources 10…
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Frequently asked questions
Is Apache SkyWalking or gofr more popular?
Apache SkyWalking has 24,984 GitHub stars and gofr has 20,820. Apache SkyWalking has the larger community by that measure.
Are Apache SkyWalking and gofr free?
Both are open source. Apache SkyWalking is licensed under Apache-2.0 and gofr under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Apache SkyWalking and gofr?
Apache SkyWalking is written in Java and gofr 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 gofr?
Choose Apache SkyWalking if you want the larger community (24,984 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose gofr if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.