head to head · open source
Apache SkyWalking vs opensre
Apache SkyWalking has 24,958 GitHub stars, 6,633 forks, 41 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. opensre has 11,150 stars, 1,627 forks, 67 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Apache SkyWalking leads on adoption by 124% (24,958 vs 11,150 stars). Apache SkyWalking is written in Java under Apache-2.0; opensre is written in Python under Apache-2.0. Apache SkyWalking has attracted 27% as many forks as stars, opensre 15%. opensre was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (observability), 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 | opensre | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 25K | ★ 11K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Java | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.6K | ⑂ 1.6K |
| 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 opensre if
- You want the opensre feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and opensre 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 opensre
OpenSRE is an open source Python framework for building AI SRE agents, distributed under the Apache 2.0 license. It lives in the infrastructure and operations ecosystem, specifically the monitoring and observability space, and it describes itself as the toolkit for AI era site reliability engineering. The project is currently at v0.1 and is published as a public alpha, meaning the core workflows are usable for early exploration but are not yet fully stable, and both APIs and integrations may evolve as development continues.
read the full opensre overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Apache SkyWalking or opensre more popular?
Apache SkyWalking has 24,958 GitHub stars and opensre has 11,150. Apache SkyWalking has the larger community by that measure.
Are Apache SkyWalking and opensre free?
Both are open source. Apache SkyWalking is licensed under Apache-2.0 and opensre under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Apache SkyWalking and opensre?
Apache SkyWalking is written in Java and opensre in Python. 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 opensre?
Choose Apache SkyWalking if you want the larger community (24,958 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose opensre if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.