head to head · open source
Apache SkyWalking vs swift-metrics
Apache SkyWalking has 24,988 GitHub stars, 6,632 forks, 41 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. swift-metrics has 798 stars, 83 forks, 8 open issues and last shipped 8 days ago. Apache SkyWalking leads on adoption by 3,031% (24,988 vs 798 stars). Apache SkyWalking is written in Java under Apache-2.0; swift-metrics is written in Swift under Apache-2.0. Apache SkyWalking has attracted 27% as many forks as stars, swift-metrics 10%. 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 | swift-metrics | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 25K | ★ 798 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Java | Swift |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-10-28 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.6K | ⑂ 83 |
| 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 swift-metrics if
- You want the swift-metrics feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Swift
- You evaluated both and swift-metrics 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 swift-metrics
SwiftMetrics A Metrics API package for Swift. Almost all production server software needs to emit metrics information for observability. Because it's unlikely that all parties can agree on one specific metrics backend implementation, this API is designed to establish a standard that can be implemented by various metrics libraries which then post the metrics data to backends like Prometheus, Graphite, publish over statsd, write to disk, etc. This is the beginning of a community driven open source project actively seeking contributions, be it code, documentation, or ideas. Apart from contributing to SwiftMetrics…
read the full swift-metrics overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Apache SkyWalking or swift-metrics more popular?
Apache SkyWalking has 24,988 GitHub stars and swift-metrics has 798. Apache SkyWalking has the larger community by that measure.
Are Apache SkyWalking and swift-metrics free?
Both are open source. Apache SkyWalking is licensed under Apache-2.0 and swift-metrics under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Apache SkyWalking and swift-metrics?
Apache SkyWalking is written in Java and swift-metrics in Swift. 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 swift-metrics?
Choose Apache SkyWalking if you want the larger community (24,988 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose swift-metrics if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.