head to head · open source
Apache SkyWalking vs opentelemetry-php
Apache SkyWalking has 24,958 GitHub stars, 6,633 forks, 41 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. opentelemetry-php has 912 stars, 232 forks, 97 open issues and last shipped today. Apache SkyWalking leads on adoption by 2,637% (24,958 vs 912 stars). Apache SkyWalking is written in Java under Apache-2.0; opentelemetry-php is written in PHP under Apache-2.0. Apache SkyWalking has attracted 27% as many forks as stars, opentelemetry-php 25%. opentelemetry-php was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (logging, metrics, open-telemetry), 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-php | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 25K | ★ 912 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Java | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.6K | ⑂ 232 |
| 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-php if
- You want the opentelemetry-php feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and opentelemetry-php 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-php
OpenTelemetry PHP is the official PHP implementation of OpenTelemetry: a monorepo of Composer packages published on Packagist that provide tracing, metrics, and logging APIs, an SDK, context propagation, semantic conventions, and an OTLP exporter for PHP applications, aimed at PHP developers and platform teams who must instrument services and ship telemetry to an observability backend.
read the full opentelemetry-php overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Apache SkyWalking or opentelemetry-php more popular?
Apache SkyWalking has 24,958 GitHub stars and opentelemetry-php has 912. Apache SkyWalking has the larger community by that measure.
Are Apache SkyWalking and opentelemetry-php free?
Both are open source. Apache SkyWalking is licensed under Apache-2.0 and opentelemetry-php under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Apache SkyWalking and opentelemetry-php?
Apache SkyWalking is written in Java and opentelemetry-php in PHP. 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-php?
Choose Apache SkyWalking if you want the larger community (24,958 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose opentelemetry-php if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.