head to head · open source
Apache SkyWalking vs loongsuite-go
Apache SkyWalking has 24,988 GitHub stars, 6,632 forks, 41 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. loongsuite-go has 907 stars, 131 forks, 30 open issues and last shipped 17 days ago. Apache SkyWalking leads on adoption by 2,655% (24,988 vs 907 stars). Apache SkyWalking is written in Java under Apache-2.0; loongsuite-go is written in Go under Apache-2.0. Apache SkyWalking has attracted 27% as many forks as stars, loongsuite-go 14%. Apache SkyWalking was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (apm, 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 | loongsuite-go | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 25K | ★ 907 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Java | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-10-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.6K | ⑂ 131 |
| 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 loongsuite-go if
- You want the loongsuite-go 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 loongsuite-go 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 loongsuite-go
Loongsuite Go Agent provides an automatic solution for Golang applications that want to leverage OpenTelemetry to enable effective observability. No code changes are required in the target application, the instrumentation is done at compile time. Simply adding otel prefix to go build to get started :rocket: Installation [!IMPORTANT] Requires Go 1.25 or newer. loongsuite go pins OpenTelemetry v1.45.0, and the OTel modules declare go 1.25.0 from v1.42.0 onward. Since the tool injects those modules into the application it instruments, both the tool and the instrumented application need Go 1.25+. See compatibility…
read the full loongsuite-go overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Apache SkyWalking or loongsuite-go more popular?
Apache SkyWalking has 24,988 GitHub stars and loongsuite-go has 907. Apache SkyWalking has the larger community by that measure.
Are Apache SkyWalking and loongsuite-go free?
Both are open source. Apache SkyWalking is licensed under Apache-2.0 and loongsuite-go under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Apache SkyWalking and loongsuite-go?
Apache SkyWalking is written in Java and loongsuite-go 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 loongsuite-go?
Choose Apache SkyWalking if you want the larger community (24,988 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose loongsuite-go if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.