head to head · open source
Apache SkyWalking vs opentelemetry-go
Apache SkyWalking has 24,958 GitHub stars, 6,633 forks, 41 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. opentelemetry-go has 6,555 stars, 1,475 forks, 166 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Apache SkyWalking leads on adoption by 281% (24,958 vs 6,555 stars). Apache SkyWalking is written in Java under Apache-2.0; opentelemetry-go is written in Go under Apache-2.0. Apache SkyWalking has attracted 27% as many forks as stars, opentelemetry-go 23%. opentelemetry-go was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (logging, 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-go | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 25K | ★ 6.6K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Java | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.6K | ⑂ 1.5K |
| 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-go if
- You want the opentelemetry-go 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 opentelemetry-go 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 opentelemetry-go
OpenTelemetry Go is the Go implementation of OpenTelemetry, the vendor neutral observability framework. It provides a set of APIs that let Go programs directly measure the performance and behavior of their own software, then send the resulting telemetry to observability platforms. The project lives in the Go ecosystem and is distributed as the module go.opentelemetry.io/otel , published on pkg.go.dev and licensed under Apache 2.0. It is a long running, actively maintained repository, roughly seven years old, with a large contributor base and a steady release cadence.
read the full opentelemetry-go overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Apache SkyWalking or opentelemetry-go more popular?
Apache SkyWalking has 24,958 GitHub stars and opentelemetry-go has 6,555. Apache SkyWalking has the larger community by that measure.
Are Apache SkyWalking and opentelemetry-go free?
Both are open source. Apache SkyWalking is licensed under Apache-2.0 and opentelemetry-go under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Apache SkyWalking and opentelemetry-go?
Apache SkyWalking is written in Java and opentelemetry-go 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 opentelemetry-go?
Choose Apache SkyWalking if you want the larger community (24,958 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose opentelemetry-go if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.