head to head · open source
Apache SkyWalking vs hl
Apache SkyWalking has 24,991 GitHub stars, 6,632 forks, 41 open issues and last shipped yesterday. hl has 3,322 stars, 68 forks, 13 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. Apache SkyWalking leads on adoption by 652% (24,991 vs 3,322 stars). Apache SkyWalking is written in Java under Apache-2.0; hl is written in Rust under MIT. Apache SkyWalking has attracted 27% as many forks as stars, hl 2%. 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 | hl | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 25K | ★ 3.3K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Java | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.6K | ⑂ 68 |
| 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 hl if
- You want the hl feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and hl 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 hl
hl [![Build Status][ci img]][ci] [![Coverage Status][cov img]][cov] [![Release][release img]][release] High performance log viewer and processor that transforms logs in JSON and logfmt formats into a human readable output. Built with efficiency in mind, it enables quick parsing and analysis of large log files with minimal overhead. Features overview Automatic Pager Integration : Automatically integrates with a pager for enhanced convenience, defaulting to less if available, but fully supporting any compatible pager. Log Streaming Mode : Enable log streaming with the P flag, which disables the pager. Field Based…
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Frequently asked questions
Is Apache SkyWalking or hl more popular?
Apache SkyWalking has 24,991 GitHub stars and hl has 3,322. Apache SkyWalking has the larger community by that measure.
Are Apache SkyWalking and hl free?
Both are open source. Apache SkyWalking is licensed under Apache-2.0 and hl under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Apache SkyWalking and hl?
Apache SkyWalking is written in Java and hl in Rust. 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 hl?
Choose Apache SkyWalking if you want the larger community (24,991 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose hl if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.