# Apache SkyWalking vs Kamon

| Attribute | Apache SkyWalking | Kamon |
|---|---|---|
| **vioscaleAI score** | 52.9 (55% (medium)) | 54.2 (21% (low)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 21 | - |
| adoption.dependent_repos | 106 | - |
| adoption.github_stars | 24,968 | - |
| content.faq | `[{"answer":"An open-source observability platform combining distributed tracing, metrics, logs, and profiling in one interface. Provides automatic instrumentation across 10+ languages, interactive service topology visualization, database monitoring, and an AI assistant for answering observability questions in natural language. It is indexed under APM Tools.","source":"https://skywalking.apache.org/","question":"What is Apache SkyWalking?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Apache SkyWalking is open source, so it can be self-hosted and used at no licence cost. It is released under the Apache-2.0 licence. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://skywalking.apache.org/","question":"Is Apache SkyWalking free to use?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Apache SkyWalking supports the web and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://skywalking.apache.org/","question":"What platforms does Apache SkyWalking support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Apache SkyWalking can be deployed cloud / SaaS and self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://skywalking.apache.org/","question":"Can Apache SkyWalking be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 14 integrations for Apache SkyWalking, including Apache APISIX, Grafana, OpenTelemetry Collector, Amazon Bedrock, OpenAI, WeChat Mini Program, Alipay Mini Program and Kafka, plus 6 more. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://skywalking.apache.org/","question":"What does Apache SkyWalking integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Apache SkyWalking is published under the Apache-2.0 licence, a permissive licence that generally allows commercial use and modification. Licence terms can change between releases, so verify against the repository for the version you intend to use.","source":"https://github.com/apache/skywalking","question":"Is Apache SkyWalking open source?","confidence":0.95}]` | `[{"answer":"Application performance monitoring platform providing metrics and distributed tracing for backend services. Supports open-source Kamon Telemetry instrumentation and integrates with Prometheus, Jaeger, and other observability tools. It is indexed under APM Tools.","source":"https://kamon.io/apm/pricing/","question":"What is Kamon?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Kamon offers a free tier, so you can start without paying. Paid plans start at $89 per month. Prices are published openly on the vendor's own pricing page. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://kamon.io/apm/pricing/","question":"Is Kamon free?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed browser-based access to Kamon. That is the extent of what we could verify from public sources, so it may well offer desktop or mobile clients we have not indexed.","source":"https://kamon.io/apm/pricing/","question":"What platforms does Kamon support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have only confirmed a cloud / SaaS deployment for Kamon, so it appears to be vendor-hosted. If a self-hosted option exists we have not found it documented publicly.","source":"https://kamon.io/apm/pricing/","question":"Can Kamon be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 9 integrations for Kamon, including Prometheus, Jaeger, Datadog, Slack, PagerDuty, Akka, Play Framework and Cats Effect, plus 1 more. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://kamon.io/apm/pricing/","question":"What does Kamon integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have independently confirmed GDPR for Kamon. Certifications we do not list are ones we have not been able to verify from public sources, which is not the same as Kamon not holding them. Always confirm compliance directly before you rely on it.","source":"https://kamon.io/legal/privacy/","question":"What security certifications does Kamon have?","confidence":0.7},{"answer":"Kamon is available worldwide. The vendor is headquartered in Croatia.","source":"https://kamon.io/apm/pricing/","question":"Where is Kamon available?","confidence":0.75}]` |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true,"self_hosted":true}` | `{"cloud":true}` |
| description.long | An open-source system for monitoring and analyzing distributed applications with comprehensive tracing, service topology visualization, and multi-signal observability for microservices and AI workloads. | Application performance monitoring platform providing metrics and distributed tracing for backend services. Supports open-source Kamon Telemetry instrumentation and integrates with Prometheus, Jaeger, and other observability tools. |
| features.capabilities | `{"rum":true,"hosting":"both","languages":"10+ language agents supported","service_map":true,"otel_support":"ingest","db_monitoring":true,"code_profiling":true,"error_analytics":true,"anomaly_detection":true,"distributed_tracing":true,"auto_instrumentation":true}` | `{"rum":false,"hosting":"cloud","languages":"Scala, Akka, Play Framework, Cats Effect, Akka HTTP, Lagom","service_map":true,"slo_tracking":false,"db_monitoring":true,"code_profiling":false,"error_analytics":false,"anomaly_detection":false,"distributed_tracing":true,"auto_instrumentation":true}` |
| integrations.count | 18 | 10 |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"Apache APISIX"},{"name":"Grafana"},{"name":"OpenTelemetry Collector"},{"name":"Amazon Bedrock"},{"name":"OpenAI"},{"name":"WeChat Mini Program"},{"name":"Alipay Mini Program"},{"name":"Kafka"},{"name":"MySQL"},{"name":"PostgreSQL"},{"name":"Redis"},{"name":"Envoy"},{"name":"DeepSeek"},{"name":"Claude Sonnet"},{"name":"Zipkin","direction":"inbound"},{"name":"OpenTelemetry","direction":"inbound"},{"name":"Prometheus","direction":"inbound"},{"name":"Zabbix","direction":"inbound"},{"name":"Fluentd","direction":"inbound"},{"name":"Flink","native":true},{"name":"Kong","native":true},{"name":"Apache RocketMQ","native":true},{"name":"Apache ActiveMQ","native":true},{"name":"Pulsar","native":true},{"name":"ClickHouse","native":true},{"name":"MongoDB","native":true},{"name":"Nginx","native":true},{"name":"Kubernetes","native":true},{"name":"Cilium","native":true},{"name":"BookKeeper","native":true},{"name":"ChatGPT","direction":"bidirectional"},{"name":"Telegraf","native":true,"category":"metrics"},{"name":"Apache Pulsar","native":true,"category":"message_queue"}]` | `[{"name":"Prometheus"},{"name":"Jaeger"},{"name":"Datadog"},{"name":"Slack"},{"name":"PagerDuty"},{"name":"Akka"},{"name":"Play Framework"},{"name":"Cats Effect"},{"name":"Lagom Framework"},{"name":"Akka HTTP"}]` |
| language.primary | Java | - |
| license.spdx | Apache-2.0 | - |
| market.availability | - | `{"hqCountry":"HR","primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true,"web":true,"linux":true}` | `{"web":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"open_source","sourceUrl":"https://skywalking.apache.org/","retrievedAt":"2026-10-14T22:35:59.641Z"}` | `{"type":"subscription","plans":[{"free":true,"name":"Starter","summary":"Free - 5K metrics, 10M spans/mo, 3 team members, 1-day retention","features":["High-fidelity metrics with up to 1% error margin","End-to-end distributed tracing","Service map with dependencies and realtime status","Built-in integrations for HTTP, Database, and Akka services","Track CPU, memory, and file system usage for unlimited hosts","Search traces by any tag","Analyze and compare metrics with smart filters and insights","Receive in-app and email alert notifications","Sandboxes for staging and development data"],"minSeats":3,"commitment":"monthly","components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":0,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}],"description":"Great for getting started with observability in small projects","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"trace_spans":"10M/mo","data_retention":"1 day","unique_metrics":"5K"}},{"free":false,"name":"Teams","summary":"$89/mo - 10K metrics, 100M spans/mo, 20 team members","features":["High-fidelity metrics with up to 1% error margin","End-to-end distributed tracing","Service map with dependencies and realtime status","Built-in integrations for HTTP, Database, and Akka services","Track CPU, memory, and file system usage for unlimited hosts","Search traces by any tag","Analyze and compare metrics with smart filters and insights","Receive in-app and email alert notifications","Receive alert notifications via Slack and Pager Duty","Sandboxes for staging and development data","Onboarding workshops with the Kamon Telemetry developers","Custom instrumentation for in-house and unsupported libraries"],"minSeats":20,"commitment":"monthly","components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":89,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}],"description":"For teams getting serious about observability in production","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"trace_spans":"100M/mo","unique_metrics":"10K","spans_retention":"14 days","metrics_retention":"60 days"}},{"free":false,"name":"Business","summary":"$299/mo - 30K metrics, 500M spans/mo, 50 team members","features":["High-fidelity metrics with up to 1% error margin","End-to-end distributed tracing","Service map with dependencies and realtime status","Built-in integrations for HTTP, Database, and Akka services","Track CPU, memory, and file system usage for unlimited hosts","Search traces by any tag","Analyze and compare metrics with smart filters and insights","Receive in-app and email alert notifications","Receive alert notifications via Slack and Pager Duty","Sandboxes for staging and development data","Onboarding workshops with the Kamon Telemetry developers","Custom instrumentation for in-house and unsupported libraries"],"minSeats":50,"commitment":"monthly","components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":299,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}],"description":"For growing organizations feeling the pains of scaling","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"trace_spans":"500M/mo","unique_metrics":"30K","spans_retention":"14 days","metrics_retention":"60 days"}},{"free":false,"name":"Enterprise","summary":"From $1499/mo - custom configuration","features":["Custom metrics capacity","Custom span limits","Custom data retention","Dedicated support","Volume discounts","Annual billing"],"commitment":"annual","components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":1499,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}],"description":"Custom capacity and data retention with dedicated support","contactSales":true}],"addOns":[{"name":"Additional metrics capacity","components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":90,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}]},{"name":"Additional spans","components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":60,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}]}],"summary":"From $89/mo. Free tier includes 5K metrics and 10M spans/month. Fixed subscription with transparent add-ons, no surprise overage charges.","currency":"USD","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://kamon.io/apm/pricing/","retrievedAt":"2026-08-13T18:18:06.357Z","startingPrice":{"amount":89,"period":"month","currency":"USD"},"billingPeriods":["month"]}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | open_source | freemium |
| pricing.price_level | free | high |
| pricing.transparent | yes | yes |
| release.cadence_days | 93 | - |
| release.history | `[{"url":"https://github.com/apache/skywalking/releases/tag/v11.0.0","date":"2026-08-28T02:40:59Z","type":"stable","version":"v11.0.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/skywalking/releases/tag/v10.4.0","date":"2026-04-01T12:51:05Z","type":"stable","version":"v10.4.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/skywalking/releases/tag/v10.3.0","date":"2025-11-10T11:40:02Z","type":"stable","version":"v10.3.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/skywalking/releases/tag/v10.2.0","date":"2025-03-24T11:52:09Z","type":"stable","version":"v10.2.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/skywalking/releases/tag/v10.1.0","date":"2024-09-29T13:30:12Z","type":"stable","version":"v10.1.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/skywalking/releases/tag/v10.0.1","date":"2024-05-30T03:42:06Z","type":"stable","version":"v10.0.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/skywalking/releases/tag/v10.0.0","date":"2024-05-13T01:02:53Z","type":"stable","version":"v10.0.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/skywalking/releases/tag/v9.7.0","date":"2023-12-01T18:19:39Z","type":"stable","version":"v9.7.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/skywalking/releases/tag/v9.6.0","date":"2023-09-03T14:33:23Z","type":"stable","version":"v9.6.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/skywalking/releases/tag/v9.5.0","date":"2023-06-18T16:20:59Z","type":"stable","version":"v9.5.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/skywalking/releases/tag/v9.4.0","date":"2023-03-09T04:01:37Z","type":"stable","version":"v9.4.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/skywalking/releases/tag/v9.3.0","date":"2022-12-04T03:44:41Z","type":"stable","version":"v9.3.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/skywalking/releases/tag/v9.2.0","date":"2022-09-01T12:54:27Z","type":"stable","version":"v9.2.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/skywalking/releases/tag/v9.1.0","date":"2022-06-10T03:01:22Z","type":"stable","version":"v9.1.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/skywalking/releases/tag/v9.0.0","date":"2022-04-09T12:13:55Z","type":"stable","version":"v9.0.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/skywalking/releases/tag/v8.9.1","date":"2021-12-11T13:57:42Z","type":"stable","version":"v8.9.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/skywalking/releases/tag/v8.9.0","date":"2021-12-05T07:33:26Z","type":"stable","version":"v8.9.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/skywalking/releases/tag/v8.8.1","date":"2021-10-02T16:39:31Z","type":"stable","version":"v8.8.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/skywalking/releases/tag/v8.8.0","date":"2021-09-27T09:58:25Z","type":"stable","version":"v8.8.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/skywalking/releases/tag/v8.7.0","date":"2021-08-02T12:25:39Z","type":"stable","version":"v8.7.0"}]` | - |
| security.gdpr | - | yes |
| security.scorecard | 7 | - |
| security.vulnerabilities | `{"count":0,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=maven&package_name=org.apache.skywalking%3Azipkin-receiver-plugin&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":null}` | - |

## Capabilities (APM Tools)

| Capability | Apache SkyWalking | Kamon |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Instrumentation** |  |  |
| Auto-instrumentation | ✓ | ✓ |
| Distributed tracing | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Insight** |  |  |
| Service map | ✓ | ✓ |
| Code / continuous profiling | ✓ | ✗ |
| Database monitoring | ✓ | ✓ |
| Error analytics | ✓ | ✗ |
| Real-user monitoring | ✓ | ✗ |
| SLO / error-budget tracking | - | ✗ |
| **Intelligence** |  |  |
| Anomaly / root-cause AI | ✓ | ✗ |
| **Standards** |  |  |
| OpenTelemetry support | OTLP ingest | - |
| **Core** |  |  |
| Language agents | 10+ language agents supported | Scala, Akka, Play Framework, Cats Effect, Akka HTTP, Lagom |
| **Deployment** |  |  |
| Hosting | Cloud + self-hosted | Cloud only |

*Source: vioscaleAI. Generated 2026-10-16T19:15:46.095Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*