head to head · open source
Vector vs swift-metrics
Vector has 22,589 GitHub stars, 2,286 forks, 2,512 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. swift-metrics has 795 stars, 81 forks, 8 open issues and last shipped 10 days ago. Vector leads on adoption by 2,741% (22,589 vs 795 stars). Vector is written in Rust under MPL-2.0; swift-metrics is written in Swift under Apache-2.0. Vector has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, swift-metrics 10%. Vector was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (metrics), 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
| Vector | swift-metrics | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 23K | ★ 795 |
| License | MPL-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Rust | Swift |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-10 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.3K | ⑂ 81 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Vector if
- You weight community size — 23K stars and counting
- You want the MPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick swift-metrics if
- You want the swift-metrics feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Swift
- You evaluated both and swift-metrics fits your workflow better
About Vector
Vector is an open source observability data pipeline written in Rust and licensed under MPL 2.0. It operates as an end to end system for collecting, transforming, and routing logs and metrics within the cloud native monitoring ecosystem. The project is maintained by Datadog's Community Open Source Engineering team, and its topics include agent, cloud native, data transformation, datadog, etl, events, forwarder, logs, metrics, and monitoring.
read the full Vector overview →
About swift-metrics
SwiftMetrics is the Apache 2.0 metrics API package for Swift, a shared abstraction that lets server side and cross platform Swift applications emit metrics for observability through whichever backend an application owner selects rather than tying emission code to a single library.
read the full swift-metrics overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Vector or swift-metrics more popular?
Vector has 22,589 GitHub stars and swift-metrics has 795. Vector has the larger community by that measure.
Are Vector and swift-metrics free?
Both are open source. Vector is licensed under MPL-2.0 and swift-metrics under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Vector and swift-metrics?
Vector is written in Rust and swift-metrics in Swift. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Vector or swift-metrics?
Choose Vector if you want the larger community (22,589 stars) or its MPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose swift-metrics if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.