head to head · open source
Apache SkyWalking vs metrics
Apache SkyWalking has 24,955 GitHub stars, 6,634 forks, 41 open issues and last shipped yesterday. metrics has 17,202 stars, 2,275 forks, 68 open issues and last shipped 4 months ago. Apache SkyWalking leads on adoption by 45% (24,955 vs 17,202 stars). Apache SkyWalking is written in Java under Apache-2.0; metrics is written in JavaScript under MIT. Apache SkyWalking has attracted 27% as many forks as stars, metrics 13%. 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 | metrics | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 25K | ★ 17K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Java | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-05-29 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.6K | ⑂ 2.3K |
| 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 metrics if
- You want the metrics feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and metrics 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 metrics
Metrics is an infographics generator for GitHub accounts, published under the MIT license and written in JavaScript. It lives in the GitHub ecosystem as a GitHub Action and as a hosted web service, and it produces statistics about a user, an organization, or a repository. The output is rendered as SVG, Markdown, PDF, or JSON, which means the same generated figures can be embedded in a profile readme, attached to a blog post, or consumed by another tool.
read the full metrics overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Apache SkyWalking or metrics more popular?
Apache SkyWalking has 24,955 GitHub stars and metrics has 17,202. Apache SkyWalking has the larger community by that measure.
Are Apache SkyWalking and metrics free?
Both are open source. Apache SkyWalking is licensed under Apache-2.0 and metrics under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Apache SkyWalking and metrics?
Apache SkyWalking is written in Java and metrics 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 metrics?
Choose Apache SkyWalking if you want the larger community (24,955 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose metrics if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.