head to head · open source
Apache SkyWalking vs phantomas
Apache SkyWalking has 24,958 GitHub stars, 6,633 forks, 41 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. phantomas has 2,262 stars, 135 forks, 65 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. Apache SkyWalking leads on adoption by 1,003% (24,958 vs 2,262 stars). Apache SkyWalking is written in Java under Apache-2.0; phantomas is written in JavaScript under BSD-2-Clause. Apache SkyWalking has attracted 27% as many forks as stars, phantomas 6%. Apache SkyWalking was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (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 | phantomas | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 25K | ★ 2.3K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | BSD-2-Clause |
| Written in | Java | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.6K | ⑂ 135 |
| 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 phantomas if
- You want the phantomas feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-2-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and phantomas 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 phantomas
phantomas is a modular, headless Chromium based web performance metrics collector written in JavaScript, released under the BSD 2 Clause licence, and intended for developers and operations teams who need to measure and monitor real page behaviour from Node.js scripts, test suites, or containers.
read the full phantomas overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Apache SkyWalking or phantomas more popular?
Apache SkyWalking has 24,958 GitHub stars and phantomas has 2,262. Apache SkyWalking has the larger community by that measure.
Are Apache SkyWalking and phantomas free?
Both are open source. Apache SkyWalking is licensed under Apache-2.0 and phantomas under BSD-2-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Apache SkyWalking and phantomas?
Apache SkyWalking is written in Java and phantomas in JavaScript. 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 phantomas?
Choose Apache SkyWalking if you want the larger community (24,958 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose phantomas if its feature set, stack or BSD-2-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.