head to head · open source
Apache SkyWalking vs hubble
Apache SkyWalking has 24,988 GitHub stars, 6,632 forks, 41 open issues and last shipped yesterday. hubble has 4,376 stars, 305 forks, 44 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Apache SkyWalking leads on adoption by 471% (24,988 vs 4,376 stars). Apache SkyWalking is written in Java under Apache-2.0; hubble is written in Makefile under Apache-2.0. Apache SkyWalking has attracted 27% as many forks as stars, hubble 7%. hubble was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (ebpf, metrics, observability), 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 | hubble | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 25K | ★ 4.4K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Java | Makefile |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.6K | ⑂ 305 |
| 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 hubble if
- You want the hubble feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Makefile
- You evaluated both and hubble 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 hubble
Network, Service & Security Observability for Kubernetes What is Hubble? Getting Started Features Service Dependency Graph Metrics & Monitoring Flow Visibility Get in touch / Community Authors What is Hubble? Hubble is a fully distributed networking and security observability platform for cloud native workloads. It is built on top of [Cilium] and [eBPF] to enable deep visibility into the communication and behavior of services as well as the networking infrastructure in a completely transparent manner. Hubble can answer questions such as: Service dependencies & communication map: What services are communicating…
read the full hubble overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Apache SkyWalking or hubble more popular?
Apache SkyWalking has 24,988 GitHub stars and hubble has 4,376. Apache SkyWalking has the larger community by that measure.
Are Apache SkyWalking and hubble free?
Both are open source. Apache SkyWalking is licensed under Apache-2.0 and hubble under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Apache SkyWalking and hubble?
Apache SkyWalking is written in Java and hubble in Makefile. 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 hubble?
Choose Apache SkyWalking if you want the larger community (24,988 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose hubble if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.