head to head · open source
Apache SkyWalking vs opentelemetry-cpp
Apache SkyWalking has 24,988 GitHub stars, 6,632 forks, 41 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. opentelemetry-cpp has 1,390 stars, 660 forks, 290 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Apache SkyWalking leads on adoption by 1,698% (24,988 vs 1,390 stars). Apache SkyWalking is written in Java under Apache-2.0; opentelemetry-cpp is written in C++ under Apache-2.0. Apache SkyWalking has attracted 27% as many forks as stars, opentelemetry-cpp 47%. opentelemetry-cpp was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (distributed-tracing, 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 | opentelemetry-cpp | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 25K | ★ 1.4K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Java | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-11-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.6K | ⑂ 660 |
| 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 opentelemetry-cpp if
- You want the opentelemetry-cpp feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and opentelemetry-cpp 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 opentelemetry-cpp
OpenTelemetry C++ The C++ OpenTelemetry client. Project Status Stable across all 3 signals i.e. Logs , Metrics , and Traces . See Spec Compliance Matrix to understand which portions of the specification has been implemented in this repo. Supported C++ Versions Code shipped from this repository generally supports the following versions of C++ standards: ISO/IEC 14882:2014 (C++14) ISO/IEC 14882:2017 (C++17) ISO/IEC 14882:2020 (C++20) ISO/IEC 14882:2024 (C++23) Any exceptions to this are noted in the individual README.md files. Please note that supporting the C Programming Language) is not a goal of the current…
read the full opentelemetry-cpp overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Apache SkyWalking or opentelemetry-cpp more popular?
Apache SkyWalking has 24,988 GitHub stars and opentelemetry-cpp has 1,390. Apache SkyWalking has the larger community by that measure.
Are Apache SkyWalking and opentelemetry-cpp free?
Both are open source. Apache SkyWalking is licensed under Apache-2.0 and opentelemetry-cpp under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Apache SkyWalking and opentelemetry-cpp?
Apache SkyWalking is written in Java and opentelemetry-cpp in C++. 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 opentelemetry-cpp?
Choose Apache SkyWalking if you want the larger community (24,988 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose opentelemetry-cpp if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.