head to head · open source
Apache SkyWalking vs telemetry
Apache SkyWalking has 24,988 GitHub stars, 6,632 forks, 41 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. telemetry has 923 stars, 76 forks, 6 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. Apache SkyWalking leads on adoption by 2,607% (24,988 vs 923 stars). Apache SkyWalking is written in Java under Apache-2.0; telemetry is written in Erlang under Apache-2.0. Apache SkyWalking has attracted 27% as many forks as stars, telemetry 8%. 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 | telemetry | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 25K | ★ 923 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Java | Erlang |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-09-30 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.6K | ⑂ 76 |
| 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 telemetry if
- You want the telemetry feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Erlang
- You evaluated both and telemetry 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 telemetry
Telemetry Documentation Telemetry is a lightweight library for dynamic dispatching of events, with a focus on metrics and instrumentation. Any Erlang or Elixir library can use telemetry to emit events. Application code and other libraries can then hook into those events and run custom handlers. Note: this library is agnostic to tooling and therefore is not directly related to OpenTelemetry. For OpenTelemetry in the Erlang VM, see opentelemetry erlang, and check opentelemetry telemetry to connect both libraries. Usage In a nutshell, you register a custom module and function to be invoked for certain events, which…
read the full telemetry overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Apache SkyWalking or telemetry more popular?
Apache SkyWalking has 24,988 GitHub stars and telemetry has 923. Apache SkyWalking has the larger community by that measure.
Are Apache SkyWalking and telemetry free?
Both are open source. Apache SkyWalking is licensed under Apache-2.0 and telemetry under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Apache SkyWalking and telemetry?
Apache SkyWalking is written in Java and telemetry in Erlang. 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 telemetry?
Choose Apache SkyWalking if you want the larger community (24,988 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose telemetry if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.