head to head · open source
Apache SkyWalking vs slog
Apache SkyWalking has 24,988 GitHub stars, 6,632 forks, 41 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. slog has 1,706 stars, 98 forks, 57 open issues and last shipped 5 months ago. Apache SkyWalking leads on adoption by 1,365% (24,988 vs 1,706 stars). Apache SkyWalking is written in Java under Apache-2.0; slog is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. Apache SkyWalking has attracted 27% as many forks as stars, slog 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 (logging), 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 | slog | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 25K | ★ 1.7K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Java | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-06-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.6K | ⑂ 98 |
| 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 slog if
- You want the slog feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and slog 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 slog
Getting started Introduction FAQ Crate list slog rs The Logging for [Rust][rust] You might consider using tracing instead It's been a while since slog was created and it served Rust community well all this time. It remains a stable, featureful and battle tested library, used in many important projects. In last few years, another ecosystem for Rust was created with similar features and a very good support for debugging async code and already larger dev team and community. Please check tracing and see if it is more suitable for your use case. It seems that it is already a go to logging/tracing solution for Rust…
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Frequently asked questions
Is Apache SkyWalking or slog more popular?
Apache SkyWalking has 24,988 GitHub stars and slog has 1,706. Apache SkyWalking has the larger community by that measure.
Are Apache SkyWalking and slog free?
Both are open source. Apache SkyWalking is licensed under Apache-2.0 and slog under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Apache SkyWalking and slog?
Apache SkyWalking is written in Java and slog in Rust. 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 slog?
Choose Apache SkyWalking if you want the larger community (24,988 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose slog if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.