head to head · open source
Apache SkyWalking vs khi
Apache SkyWalking has 24,993 GitHub stars, 6,632 forks, 41 open issues and last shipped today. khi has 2,087 stars, 100 forks, 11 open issues and last shipped today. Apache SkyWalking leads on adoption by 1,098% (24,993 vs 2,087 stars). Apache SkyWalking is written in Java under Apache-2.0; khi is written in Go under Apache-2.0. Apache SkyWalking has attracted 27% as many forks as stars, khi 5%. khi was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (logging, 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 | khi | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 25K | ★ 2.1K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Java | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-05 | 2026-11-05 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.6K | ⑂ 100 |
| 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 khi if
- You want the khi 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 khi 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 khi
Language: English 日本語 Kubernetes History Inspector Kubernetes History Inspector (KHI) is a rich log visualization tool for Kubernetes clusters. KHI transforms vast quantities of logs into an interactive, comprehensive timeline view. This makes it an invaluable tool for troubleshooting complex issues that span multiple components within your Kubernetes clusters. Also, KHI is agentless, allowing anyone to access its features without a complicated process. Timeline view Topology view Timeline view visualizes resource status change timings with timeline charts and manifest diffs from Kubernetes audit logs. Topology…
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Frequently asked questions
Is Apache SkyWalking or khi more popular?
Apache SkyWalking has 24,993 GitHub stars and khi has 2,087. Apache SkyWalking has the larger community by that measure.
Are Apache SkyWalking and khi free?
Both are open source. Apache SkyWalking is licensed under Apache-2.0 and khi under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Apache SkyWalking and khi?
Apache SkyWalking is written in Java and khi 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 khi?
Choose Apache SkyWalking if you want the larger community (24,993 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose khi if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.