head to head · open source
Apache SkyWalking vs magic-trace
Apache SkyWalking has 24,958 GitHub stars, 6,633 forks, 41 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. magic-trace has 6,273 stars, 209 forks, 70 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. Apache SkyWalking leads on adoption by 298% (24,958 vs 6,273 stars). Apache SkyWalking is written in Java under Apache-2.0; magic-trace is written in OCaml under MIT. Apache SkyWalking has attracted 27% as many forks as stars, magic-trace 3%. Apache SkyWalking was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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 | magic-trace | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 25K | ★ 6.3K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Java | OCaml |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-08-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.6K | ⑂ 209 |
| 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 magic-trace if
- You want the magic-trace feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches OCaml
- You evaluated both and magic-trace 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 magic-trace
magic trace is an open source tracing tool, written in OCaml and released under the MIT license, that collects and displays high resolution traces of what a process is doing. It lives in the Linux performance tooling ecosystem and sits alongside perf , which it uses under the hood to drive Intel Processor Trace. Rather than sampling call stacks throughout time, magic trace snapshots a ring buffer of all control flow leading up to a chosen point in time, then renders an interactive timeline of call stacks going back a configurable span of roughly 10ms, at approximately 40ns resolution.
read the full magic-trace overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Apache SkyWalking or magic-trace more popular?
Apache SkyWalking has 24,958 GitHub stars and magic-trace has 6,273. Apache SkyWalking has the larger community by that measure.
Are Apache SkyWalking and magic-trace free?
Both are open source. Apache SkyWalking is licensed under Apache-2.0 and magic-trace under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Apache SkyWalking and magic-trace?
Apache SkyWalking is written in Java and magic-trace in OCaml. 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 magic-trace?
Choose Apache SkyWalking if you want the larger community (24,958 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose magic-trace if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.