head to head · open source
Apache SkyWalking vs moosestack
Apache SkyWalking has 24,988 GitHub stars, 6,632 forks, 41 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. moosestack has 591 stars, 32 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Apache SkyWalking leads on adoption by 4,128% (24,988 vs 591 stars). Apache SkyWalking is written in Java under Apache-2.0; moosestack is written in Rust under MIT. Apache SkyWalking has attracted 27% as many forks as stars, moosestack 5%. moosestack was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (metrics), 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 | moosestack | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 25K | ★ 591 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Java | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.6K | ⑂ 32 |
| 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 moosestack if
- You want the moosestack feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and moosestack 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 moosestack
[!IMPORTANT] MooseStack has reached end of life and is no longer actively maintained. As users, we loved the idea of the MooseStack harness. But as coding agents became our primary users over the last couple of years, results from the Agent Experience Platform (AXP) made it clear that they would rather free solo on the underlying tools than use our product. We cannot in good faith keep building tools that make their work harder. Thank you to everyone who supported MooseStack and helped us test the idea. You can learn more about AXP in the docs. MooseStack The developer agent harness for ClickHouse — MooseStack…
read the full moosestack overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Apache SkyWalking or moosestack more popular?
Apache SkyWalking has 24,988 GitHub stars and moosestack has 591. Apache SkyWalking has the larger community by that measure.
Are Apache SkyWalking and moosestack free?
Both are open source. Apache SkyWalking is licensed under Apache-2.0 and moosestack under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Apache SkyWalking and moosestack?
Apache SkyWalking is written in Java and moosestack 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 moosestack?
Choose Apache SkyWalking if you want the larger community (24,988 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose moosestack if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.