head to head · open source
Apache SkyWalking vs logging-log4j2
Apache SkyWalking has 24,988 GitHub stars, 6,632 forks, 41 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. logging-log4j2 has 3,641 stars, 1,760 forks, 212 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Apache SkyWalking leads on adoption by 586% (24,988 vs 3,641 stars). Apache SkyWalking is written in Java under Apache-2.0; logging-log4j2 is written in Java under Apache-2.0. Apache SkyWalking has attracted 27% as many forks as stars, logging-log4j2 48%. logging-log4j2 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 | logging-log4j2 | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 25K | ★ 3.6K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Java | Java |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.6K | ⑂ 1.8K |
| 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 logging-log4j2 if
- You want the logging-log4j2 feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and logging-log4j2 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 logging-log4j2
//// Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more contributor license agreements. See the NOTICE file distributed with this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership. The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the…
read the full logging-log4j2 overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Apache SkyWalking or logging-log4j2 more popular?
Apache SkyWalking has 24,988 GitHub stars and logging-log4j2 has 3,641. Apache SkyWalking has the larger community by that measure.
Are Apache SkyWalking and logging-log4j2 free?
Both are open source. Apache SkyWalking is licensed under Apache-2.0 and logging-log4j2 under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Apache SkyWalking and logging-log4j2?
Apache SkyWalking is written in Java and logging-log4j2 in Java. 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 logging-log4j2?
Choose Apache SkyWalking if you want the larger community (24,988 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose logging-log4j2 if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.