head to head · open source
Apache SkyWalking vs lnav
Apache SkyWalking has 24,958 GitHub stars, 6,633 forks, 41 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. lnav has 10,683 stars, 404 forks, 295 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Apache SkyWalking leads on adoption by 134% (24,958 vs 10,683 stars). Apache SkyWalking is written in Java under Apache-2.0; lnav is written in C++ under BSD-2-Clause. Apache SkyWalking has attracted 27% as many forks as stars, lnav 4%. lnav 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 | lnav | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 25K | ★ 11K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | BSD-2-Clause |
| Written in | Java | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.6K | ⑂ 404 |
| 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 lnav if
- You want the lnav feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-2-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and lnav fits your workflow better
About Apache SkyWalking
Apache SkyWalking is an open source application performance monitoring (APM) system for distributed systems in cloud native architectures, built for teams that run microservices across Kubernetes and container based environments.
read the full Apache SkyWalking overview →
About lnav
lnav is a log file viewer for the terminal that decompresses, detects the format of, merges, indexes and queries log files in one interactive text interface, built for developers, system administrators and support engineers who diagnose systems from the command line.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Apache SkyWalking or lnav more popular?
Apache SkyWalking has 24,958 GitHub stars and lnav has 10,683. Apache SkyWalking has the larger community by that measure.
Are Apache SkyWalking and lnav free?
Both are open source. Apache SkyWalking is licensed under Apache-2.0 and lnav under BSD-2-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Apache SkyWalking and lnav?
Apache SkyWalking is written in Java and lnav in C++. 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 lnav?
Choose Apache SkyWalking if you want the larger community (24,958 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose lnav if its feature set, stack or BSD-2-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.