head to head · open source
Apache SkyWalking vs monolog
Apache SkyWalking has 24,955 GitHub stars, 6,634 forks, 41 open issues and last shipped yesterday. monolog has 21,406 stars, 1,910 forks, 3 open issues and last shipped 9 days ago. Apache SkyWalking leads on adoption by 17% (24,955 vs 21,406 stars). Apache SkyWalking is written in Java under Apache-2.0; monolog is written in PHP under MIT. Apache SkyWalking has attracted 27% as many forks as stars, monolog 9%. 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 | monolog | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 25K | ★ 21K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Java | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-09 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.6K | ⑂ 1.9K |
| 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 monolog if
- You want the monolog feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and monolog 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 monolog
Monolog is a logging library for PHP that sends log records to files, sockets, inboxes, databases, and various web services. It ships with the handlers, formatters, and processors needed to route records where they belong, and special handlers allow more advanced logging strategies than a single output stream. The library lives in the PHP ecosystem and is distributed through Packagist as monolog/monolog . It is released under the MIT license and has been developed for sixteen years, with more than twenty one thousand stars and roughly nineteen hundred forks on GitHub.
read the full monolog overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Apache SkyWalking or monolog more popular?
Apache SkyWalking has 24,955 GitHub stars and monolog has 21,406. Apache SkyWalking has the larger community by that measure.
Are Apache SkyWalking and monolog free?
Both are open source. Apache SkyWalking is licensed under Apache-2.0 and monolog under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Apache SkyWalking and monolog?
Apache SkyWalking is written in Java and monolog in PHP. 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 monolog?
Choose Apache SkyWalking if you want the larger community (24,955 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose monolog if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.