head to head · open source
Sentry vs skywalking-java
Sentry has 45,704 GitHub stars, 4,959 forks, 2,265 open issues and last shipped yesterday. skywalking-java has 927 stars, 694 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Sentry leads on adoption by 4,830% (45,704 vs 927 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.
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Side by side
| Sentry | skywalking-java | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 46K | ★ 927 |
| License | Custom / other | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | Java |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.0K | ⑂ 694 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Sentry if
- You weight community size — 46K 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
Users and logs provide clues. Sentry provides answers. What's Sentry? Sentry is the debugging platform that helps every developer detect, trace, and fix issues. Code breaks, fix it faster. Official Sentry SDKs JavaScript Electron React Native Python Ruby PHP Laravel Go Rust Java/Kotlin Objective C/Swift C\ /F\ C/C++ Dart/Flutter Perl Clojure Elixir Unity Unreal Engine Godot Engine PowerShell Resources Documentation Discussions (Bugs, feature requests, general questions) Discord Contributing Bug Tracker Code Transifex (Translate Sentry\!)
read the full Sentry overview →
About skywalking-java
Apache SkyWalking Java Agent ========== SkyWalking Java: The Java Agent for Apache SkyWalking, which provides the native tracing/metrics/logging abilities for Java projects. SkyWalking: an APM(application performance monitor) system, especially designed for microservices, cloud native and container based (Docker and Kubernetes) architectures. Documentation Official documentation Downloads Please head to the releases page to download a release of Apache SkyWalking. Code of conduct This project adheres to the Contributor Covenant code of conduct. By participating, you are expected to uphold this code. Please…
read the full skywalking-java overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Sentry or skywalking-java more popular?
Sentry has 45,704 GitHub stars and skywalking-java has 927. 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 (45,704 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.