head to head · open source
Apache SkyWalking vs minitrace-rust
Apache SkyWalking has 24,994 GitHub stars, 6,629 forks, 41 open issues and last shipped yesterday. minitrace-rust has 750 stars, 46 forks, 13 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. Apache SkyWalking leads on adoption by 3,233% (24,994 vs 750 stars). Apache SkyWalking is written in Java under Apache-2.0; minitrace-rust is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. Apache SkyWalking has attracted 27% as many forks as stars, minitrace-rust 6%. 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 | minitrace-rust | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 25K | ★ 750 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Java | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-11-08 | 2026-09-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.6K | ⑂ 46 |
| 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 minitrace-rust if
- You want the minitrace-rust feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and minitrace-rust 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 minitrace-rust
minitrace has become fastrace! We decide to continue the development of minitrace under a new organization structure for better community governance. fastrace is maintained by the same maintainers of minitrace, so that we encourage all users to just migrate. Meanwhile, minitrace will not be maintained any more. See for details. Migrate to fastrace Simply substitute the occurance of minitrace with fastrace in your source code, like:
read the full minitrace-rust overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Apache SkyWalking or minitrace-rust more popular?
Apache SkyWalking has 24,994 GitHub stars and minitrace-rust has 750. Apache SkyWalking has the larger community by that measure.
Are Apache SkyWalking and minitrace-rust free?
Both are open source. Apache SkyWalking is licensed under Apache-2.0 and minitrace-rust under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Apache SkyWalking and minitrace-rust?
Apache SkyWalking is written in Java and minitrace-rust in Rust. 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 minitrace-rust?
Choose Apache SkyWalking if you want the larger community (24,994 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose minitrace-rust if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.