head to head · open source
Apache SkyWalking vs opentelemetry-python
Apache SkyWalking has 24,988 GitHub stars, 6,632 forks, 41 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. opentelemetry-python has 2,700 stars, 1,059 forks, 425 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. Apache SkyWalking leads on adoption by 825% (24,988 vs 2,700 stars). Apache SkyWalking is written in Java under Apache-2.0; opentelemetry-python is written in Python under Apache-2.0. Apache SkyWalking has attracted 27% as many forks as stars, opentelemetry-python 39%. Apache SkyWalking was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (distributed-tracing, 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Apache SkyWalking | opentelemetry-python | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 25K | ★ 2.7K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Java | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.6K | ⑂ 1.1K |
| 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-python if
- You want the opentelemetry-python feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and opentelemetry-python 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-python
OpenTelemetry Python Project Status See the OpenTelemetry Instrumentation for Python. Project versioning information and stability guarantees can be found here. Breaking Changes [!IMPORTANT] We are working on stabilizing the Log signal which would require making deprecations and breaking changes. We will try to reduce the releases that may require an update to your code, especially for instrumentations or for SDK developers. Getting started You can find the getting started guide for OpenTelemetry Python here. If you are looking for examples on how to use the OpenTelemetry API to instrument your code manually, or…
read the full opentelemetry-python overview →
More in Infrastructure & Operations
Related comparisons
More Monitoring & Observability projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Monitoring & Observability field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Apache SkyWalking or opentelemetry-python more popular?
Apache SkyWalking has 24,988 GitHub stars and opentelemetry-python has 2,700. Apache SkyWalking has the larger community by that measure.
Are Apache SkyWalking and opentelemetry-python free?
Both are open source. Apache SkyWalking is licensed under Apache-2.0 and opentelemetry-python under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Apache SkyWalking and opentelemetry-python?
Apache SkyWalking is written in Java and opentelemetry-python in Python. 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-python?
Choose Apache SkyWalking if you want the larger community (24,988 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose opentelemetry-python if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.