head to head · open source
Apache SkyWalking vs opentelemetry-go
Apache SkyWalking has 24,988 GitHub stars, 6,632 forks, 41 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. opentelemetry-go has 6,593 stars, 1,532 forks, 166 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Apache SkyWalking leads on adoption by 279% (24,988 vs 6,593 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 | 2026-11-03 | 2026-11-03 |
| 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 ========== 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-go
OpenTelemetry Go OpenTelemetry Go is the Go implementation of OpenTelemetry. It provides a set of APIs to directly measure performance and behavior of your software and send this data to observability platforms. Project Status Progress and status specific to this repository is tracked in our project boards and milestones. Project versioning information and stability guarantees can be found in the versioning documentation. [^1]: Compatibility OpenTelemetry Go ensures compatibility with the current supported versions of the Go language: Each major Go release is supported until there are two newer major releases…
read the full opentelemetry-go overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Apache SkyWalking or opentelemetry-go more popular?
Apache SkyWalking has 24,988 GitHub stars and opentelemetry-go has 6,593. 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 (24,988 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.