head to head · open source
Apache SkyWalking vs log
Apache SkyWalking has 24,988 GitHub stars, 6,632 forks, 41 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. log has 3,415 stars, 105 forks, 41 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. Apache SkyWalking leads on adoption by 632% (24,988 vs 3,415 stars). Apache SkyWalking is written in Java under Apache-2.0; log is written in Go under MIT. Apache SkyWalking has attracted 27% as many forks as stars, log 3%. 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 | log | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 25K | ★ 3.4K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Java | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-10-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.6K | ⑂ 105 |
| 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 log if
- You want the log feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and log 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 log
Log A minimal and colorful Go logging library. 🪵 It provides a leveled structured human readable logger with a small API. Unlike [standard log ][stdlog], the Charm logger provides customizable colorful human readable logging with batteries included. Uses [Lip Gloss][lipgloss] to style and colorize the output. Colorful, human readable format. Ability to customize the time stamp format. Skips caller frames and marks function as helpers. Leveled logging. Text, JSON, and Logfmt formatters. Store and retrieve logger in and from context. Slog handler. Standard log adapter. Usage Use go get to download the dependency…
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Frequently asked questions
Is Apache SkyWalking or log more popular?
Apache SkyWalking has 24,988 GitHub stars and log has 3,415. Apache SkyWalking has the larger community by that measure.
Are Apache SkyWalking and log free?
Both are open source. Apache SkyWalking is licensed under Apache-2.0 and log under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Apache SkyWalking and log?
Apache SkyWalking is written in Java and log 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 log?
Choose Apache SkyWalking if you want the larger community (24,988 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose log if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.