head to head · open source
Sentry vs skywalking-java
Sentry has 44,806 GitHub stars, 4,857 forks, 2,265 open issues and last shipped today. skywalking-java has 925 stars, 691 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Sentry leads on adoption by 4,744% (44,806 vs 925 stars). Sentry is written in Python under a custom or non-standard licence; skywalking-java is written in Java under Apache-2.0. Sentry has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, skywalking-java 75%. Sentry was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (apm), 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Sentry | skywalking-java | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 45K | ★ 925 |
| License | Custom / other | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.9K | ⑂ 691 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Sentry if
- You weight community size — 45K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick skywalking-java if
- You want the skywalking-java feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and skywalking-java fits your workflow better
About Sentry
Sentry is an open source debugging platform for detecting, tracing, and fixing software issues in real time. It lives in the developer infrastructure ecosystem and provides error tracking and performance monitoring across languages, frameworks, and runtime environments.
read the full Sentry overview →
About skywalking-java
skywalking java is the Java agent for Apache SkyWalking, aimed at teams that run Java microservices on cloud native, container based architectures and need native tracing, metrics, and logging for their projects.
read the full skywalking-java overview →
More in Infrastructure & Operations
Related comparisons
More Monitoring & Observability projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Monitoring & Observability field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Sentry or skywalking-java more popular?
Sentry has 44,806 GitHub stars and skywalking-java has 925. Sentry has the larger community by that measure.
Are Sentry and skywalking-java free?
Both are open source. Sentry has no licence declared in this registry, and skywalking-java is licensed under Apache-2.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Sentry and skywalking-java?
Sentry is written in Python and skywalking-java in Java. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Sentry or skywalking-java?
Choose Sentry if you want the larger community (44,806 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose skywalking-java if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.