head to head · open source
Apache SkyWalking vs ratel
Apache SkyWalking has 25,006 GitHub stars, 6,625 forks, 41 open issues and last shipped today. ratel has 563 stars, 32 forks, 23 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Apache SkyWalking leads on adoption by 4,342% (25,006 vs 563 stars). Apache SkyWalking is written in Java under Apache-2.0; ratel is written in TypeScript under MIT. Apache SkyWalking has attracted 26% as many forks as stars, ratel 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 (observability), 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 | ratel | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 25K | ★ 563 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Java | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-15 | 2026-11-13 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.6K | ⑂ 32 |
| 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 ratel if
- You want the ratel feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and ratel 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 ratel
Ratel See what your AI agent gets wrong, and what to change. On your own infrastructure. Docs • Skills • Discord Introduction Ratel is a self hosted platform for AI agents. Your agent sends it traces and its catalog of tools and skills. Ratel reads that traffic and shows you what the agent gets wrong, what people ask it for, and which changes would make it find and finish more. It is for anyone building or running an agent who wants to see how it behaves and keep that data on their own machines. It runs as one application and one Postgres database, and it needs nothing else: Console: the pages you read and act…
read the full ratel overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Apache SkyWalking or ratel more popular?
Apache SkyWalking has 25,006 GitHub stars and ratel has 563. Apache SkyWalking has the larger community by that measure.
Are Apache SkyWalking and ratel free?
Both are open source. Apache SkyWalking is licensed under Apache-2.0 and ratel under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Apache SkyWalking and ratel?
Apache SkyWalking is written in Java and ratel in TypeScript. 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 ratel?
Choose Apache SkyWalking if you want the larger community (25,006 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose ratel if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.