head to head · open source
Apache SkyWalking vs graphite-web
Apache SkyWalking has 24,988 GitHub stars, 6,632 forks, 41 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. graphite-web has 6,132 stars, 1,255 forks, 25 open issues and last shipped 23 days ago. Apache SkyWalking leads on adoption by 308% (24,988 vs 6,132 stars). Apache SkyWalking is written in Java under Apache-2.0; graphite-web is written in JavaScript under Apache-2.0. Apache SkyWalking has attracted 27% as many forks as stars, graphite-web 20%. 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 (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 | graphite-web | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 25K | ★ 6.1K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Java | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-10-13 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.6K | ⑂ 1.3K |
| 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 graphite-web if
- You want the graphite-web feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and graphite-web 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 graphite-web
Graphite Web Overview Graphite consists of three major components: 1. Graphite Web, a Django based web application that renders graphs and dashboards 2. The Carbon metric processing daemons 3. The Whisper time series database library Installation, Configuration and Usage Please refer to the instructions at readthedocs. License Graphite Web is licensed under version 2.0 of the Apache License. See the LICENSE file for details.
read the full graphite-web overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Apache SkyWalking or graphite-web more popular?
Apache SkyWalking has 24,988 GitHub stars and graphite-web has 6,132. Apache SkyWalking has the larger community by that measure.
Are Apache SkyWalking and graphite-web free?
Both are open source. Apache SkyWalking is licensed under Apache-2.0 and graphite-web under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Apache SkyWalking and graphite-web?
Apache SkyWalking is written in Java and graphite-web in JavaScript. 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 graphite-web?
Choose Apache SkyWalking if you want the larger community (24,988 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose graphite-web if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.