head to head · open source
Apache SkyWalking vs telegraf
Apache SkyWalking has 24,955 GitHub stars, 6,634 forks, 41 open issues and last shipped yesterday. telegraf has 17,807 stars, 5,839 forks, 449 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Apache SkyWalking leads on adoption by 40% (24,955 vs 17,807 stars). Apache SkyWalking is written in Java under Apache-2.0; telegraf is written in Go under MIT. Apache SkyWalking has attracted 27% as many forks as stars, telegraf 33%. telegraf was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (metrics, telegraf), 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 | telegraf | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 25K | ★ 18K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Java | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.6K | ⑂ 5.8K |
| 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 telegraf if
- You want the telegraf feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and telegraf 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 telegraf
Telegraf is a Go based, MIT licensed open source agent that collects, processes, aggregates, and writes metrics, logs, and other arbitrary data, and it is aimed at engineers who run their own monitoring and observability pipelines.
read the full telegraf overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Apache SkyWalking or telegraf more popular?
Apache SkyWalking has 24,955 GitHub stars and telegraf has 17,807. Apache SkyWalking has the larger community by that measure.
Are Apache SkyWalking and telegraf free?
Both are open source. Apache SkyWalking is licensed under Apache-2.0 and telegraf under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Apache SkyWalking and telegraf?
Apache SkyWalking is written in Java and telegraf in Go. 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 telegraf?
Choose Apache SkyWalking if you want the larger community (24,955 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose telegraf if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.