head to head · open source
Apache SkyWalking vs node_exporter
Apache SkyWalking has 24,958 GitHub stars, 6,633 forks, 41 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. node_exporter has 13,792 stars, 2,711 forks, 314 open issues and last shipped 17 days ago. Apache SkyWalking leads on adoption by 81% (24,958 vs 13,792 stars). Apache SkyWalking is written in Java under Apache-2.0; node_exporter is written in Go under Apache-2.0. Apache SkyWalking has attracted 27% as many forks as stars, node_exporter 20%. Apache SkyWalking 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.
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Side by side
| Apache SkyWalking | node_exporter | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 25K | ★ 14K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Java | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.6K | ⑂ 2.7K |
| 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 node_exporter if
- You want the node_exporter 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 node_exporter 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 node_exporter
Node exporter is a Prometheus exporter for hardware and OS metrics exposed by \ NIX kernels. It is written in Go and ships with pluggable metric collectors, so the set of measurements it gathers can be tuned per host rather than fixed at build time. The project lives in the Prometheus ecosystem, is published under the Apache 2.0 license, and has been developed for roughly thirteen years, with the repository showing 13,782 stars and 2,708 forks at the time of writing.
read the full node_exporter overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Apache SkyWalking or node_exporter more popular?
Apache SkyWalking has 24,958 GitHub stars and node_exporter has 13,792. Apache SkyWalking has the larger community by that measure.
Are Apache SkyWalking and node_exporter free?
Both are open source. Apache SkyWalking is licensed under Apache-2.0 and node_exporter under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Apache SkyWalking and node_exporter?
Apache SkyWalking is written in Java and node_exporter 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 node_exporter?
Choose Apache SkyWalking if you want the larger community (24,958 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose node_exporter if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.