# Apache SkyWalking vs Pyroscope

**Leader by vioscaleAI score:** Pyroscope

| Attribute | Apache SkyWalking | Pyroscope |
|---|---|---|
| **vioscaleAI score** | 52.4 (55% (medium)) | 61.6 (63% (medium)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 16 | - |
| adoption.dependent_repos | 106 | - |
| adoption.github_stars | 24,948 | - |
| 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":"Observability service providing visibility into infrastructure usage and costs, including tracking of artificial intelligence tool consumption for billing purposes. It is indexed under APM Tools.","source":"https://grafana.com/oss/pyroscope/","question":"What is Pyroscope?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Pyroscope offers a free tier, so you can start without paying. Paid plans start at $0.05. Prices are published openly on the vendor's own pricing page. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://grafana.com/oss/pyroscope/","question":"Is Pyroscope free?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Pyroscope supports the web and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://grafana.com/oss/pyroscope/","question":"What platforms does Pyroscope support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have only confirmed a cloud / SaaS deployment for Pyroscope, so it appears to be vendor-hosted. If a self-hosted option exists we have not found it documented publicly.","source":"https://grafana.com/oss/pyroscope/","question":"Can Pyroscope be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have independently confirmed SOC 2, ISO 27001 and GDPR for Pyroscope. Certifications we do not list are ones we have not been able to verify from public sources, which is not the same as Pyroscope not holding them. Always confirm compliance directly before you rely on it.","source":"https://trust.grafana.com","question":"What security certifications does Pyroscope have?","confidence":0.7}]` |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true,"self_hosted":true}` | `{"cloud":true}` |
| description.long | An open-source application monitoring system for distributed cloud-native architectures that aggregates tracing, metrics, logs, and profiling data from multiple services. Includes automatic language instrumentation, kernel-level monitoring via eBPF, machine learning-based anomaly detection, and LLM observability. | Observability service providing visibility into infrastructure usage and costs, including tracking of artificial intelligence tool consumption for billing purposes. |
| 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}` | `{"hosting":"both","code_profiling":true,"distributed_tracing":true}` |
| integrations.count | 19 | 1 |
| 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":"Grafana"}]` |
| language.primary | Java | - |
| license.spdx | Apache-2.0 | - |
| platform.support | `{"web":true,"linux":true}` | `{"cli":true,"web":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"open_source","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://skywalking.apache.org/","retrievedAt":"2026-08-14T13:41:37.822Z"}` | `{"type":"hybrid","plans":[{"free":true,"name":"Free","summary":"$0/month","features":["All Grafana Cloud services with limited usage","Community support","14 days retention for metrics, logs, traces, profiles, & k6 performance tests"],"components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":0,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}],"description":"Always free, perfect for personal projects and early-stage startups","contactSales":false},{"free":false,"name":"Pro","summary":"From $19/month + usage with volume discounts","features":["Pay as you go above Free tier","8×5 email support","13 months retention for metrics; 30 days retention for logs, traces, profiles, & k6 performance tests"],"commitment":"monthly","components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":19,"period":"month","currency":"USD"},{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"GB"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.05,"currency":"USD"}],"description":"Self-serve pay-as-you-go with volume discounts","contactSales":false},{"free":false,"name":"Enterprise","summary":"From $25,000/year","features":["Premium support","Custom retention","Deployment flexibility (Public Cloud, Federal Cloud, Bring Your Own Cloud)"],"commitment":"annual","components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":25000,"period":"year","currency":"USD"}],"description":"Full-service for companies with security, compliance, and deployment requirements","contactSales":true}],"summary":"Free tier with $0 cost. Pro from $19/month + usage. Enterprise from $25,000/year.","currency":"USD","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://grafana.com/oss/pyroscope/","retrievedAt":"2026-08-03T13:12:09.793Z","startingPrice":{"amount":0.05,"period":"month","currency":"USD"},"billingPeriods":["month","year"]}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | open_source | commercial |
| pricing.price_level | free | unknown |
| 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"}]` | - |
| reliability.status_page | - | yes |
| security.disclosure_policy | - | yes |
| security.fedramp | - | yes |
| security.gdpr | - | yes |
| security.iso27001 | - | yes |
| security.pci | - | yes |
| security.scorecard | 7 | - |
| security.soc2 | - | yes |
| security.trust_center | - | https://grafana.com/security/hall-of-fame/issue_35/ |
| 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 | Pyroscope |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **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 | - |
| **Deployment** |  |  |
| Hosting | Cloud + self-hosted | Cloud + self-hosted |

*Source: vioscaleAI. Generated 2026-09-21T02:30:43.455Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*