head to head · open source
Apache SkyWalking vs m3
Apache SkyWalking has 24,958 GitHub stars, 6,633 forks, 41 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. m3 has 4,898 stars, 463 forks, 222 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Apache SkyWalking leads on adoption by 410% (24,958 vs 4,898 stars). Apache SkyWalking is written in Java under Apache-2.0; m3 is written in Go under Apache-2.0. Apache SkyWalking has attracted 27% as many forks as stars, m3 9%. m3 was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (metrics, prometheus), 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Apache SkyWalking | m3 | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 25K | ★ 4.9K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Java | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.6K | ⑂ 463 |
| 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 m3 if
- You want the m3 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 m3 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 m3
M3 is an Apache 2.0 licensed, Go based monorepo that provides a distributed time series database, query engine, metrics aggregator, and Prometheus sidecar for teams that need to store and query large volumes of metrics on their own infrastructure.
More in Infrastructure & Operations
Related comparisons
More Monitoring & Observability projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Monitoring & Observability field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Apache SkyWalking or m3 more popular?
Apache SkyWalking has 24,958 GitHub stars and m3 has 4,898. Apache SkyWalking has the larger community by that measure.
Are Apache SkyWalking and m3 free?
Both are open source. Apache SkyWalking is licensed under Apache-2.0 and m3 under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Apache SkyWalking and m3?
Apache SkyWalking is written in Java and m3 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 m3?
Choose Apache SkyWalking if you want the larger community (24,958 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose m3 if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.