# Parca vs Skylight

**Leader by Vioscale score:** Skylight

| Attribute | Parca | Skylight |
|---|---|---|
| **Vioscale score** | 41.4 (54% (medium)) | 56.8 (49% (low)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 16 | - |
| adoption.dependent_repos | 40 | - |
| adoption.github_stars | 4,951 | - |
| deployment.options | `{"self_hosted":true}` | `{"cloud":true}` |
| description.long | Open source continuous profiling platform for analyzing CPU, memory, and IO usage down to the line number across entire infrastructure using eBPF. | Skylight visualizes performance data to help identify and fix bottlenecks in Ruby and Rails apps. It includes endpoint analysis, SQL profiling, deploy tracking, and background job monitoring. |
| features.capabilities | `{"hosting":"self","languages":"C, C++, Rust, Go, and more","otel_support":"none","code_profiling":true,"auto_instrumentation":true}` | `{"rum":false,"hosting":"cloud","languages":"Ruby, Rails, Sinatra, Grape","db_monitoring":true,"code_profiling":true,"error_analytics":true,"anomaly_detection":true,"auto_instrumentation":true}` |
| integrations.count | 1 | 7 |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"Kubernetes"}]` | `[{"name":"Sidekiq"},{"name":"DelayedJob"},{"name":"ActiveJob"},{"name":"Sinatra"},{"name":"Grape"},{"name":"GraphQL"},{"name":"MCP"}]` |
| language.primary | TypeScript | - |
| license.spdx | Apache-2.0 | - |
| market.availability | - | `{"primaryMarkets":["US"],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true,"web":true,"linux":true}` | `{"web":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"open_source","sourceUrl":"https://www.parca.dev","retrievedAt":"2026-08-13T20:43:59.814Z"}` | `{"type":"hybrid","plans":[{"free":true,"name":"Free","components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":0,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}],"description":"100,000 traces per month","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"traces":"100k/month"}},{"free":false,"name":"Pay-as-you-go","summary":"Starting at $20/month","components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":20,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}],"description":"Automatic tier adjustment based on monthly traces","contactSales":false}],"summary":"Free tier with 100,000 monthly traces; paid tiers starting at $20/month","currency":"USD","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://www.skylight.io/pricing","retrievedAt":"2026-08-13T20:48:14.422Z","freeTrialDays":30,"startingPrice":{"amount":20,"period":"month","currency":"USD"},"billingPeriods":["month"]}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | open_source | freemium |
| pricing.price_level | free | mid |
| pricing.transparent | yes | yes |
| release.cadence_days | 71 | - |
| release.history | `[{"url":"https://github.com/parca-dev/parca/releases/tag/v0.28.0","date":"2026-05-07T08:08:08Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.28.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/parca-dev/parca/releases/tag/v0.27.1","date":"2026-03-20T15:57:15Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.27.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/parca-dev/parca/releases/tag/v0.27.0","date":"2026-03-20T13:36:53Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.27.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/parca-dev/parca/releases/tag/v0.26.0","date":"2026-02-27T12:35:51Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.26.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/parca-dev/parca/releases/tag/v0.25.0","date":"2025-11-25T09:01:05Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.25.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/parca-dev/parca/releases/tag/v0.24.2","date":"2025-09-10T16:49:35Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.24.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/parca-dev/parca/releases/tag/v0.24.1","date":"2025-09-09T16:19:35Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.24.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/parca-dev/parca/releases/tag/v0.24.0","date":"2025-06-20T07:47:59Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.24.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/parca-dev/parca/releases/tag/v0.23.1","date":"2025-02-24T14:24:39Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.23.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/parca-dev/parca/releases/tag/v0.23.0","date":"2025-02-20T16:17:30Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.23.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/parca-dev/parca/releases/tag/v0.22.0","date":"2024-08-09T12:24:32Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.22.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/parca-dev/parca/releases/tag/v0.21.0","date":"2024-02-27T16:50:39Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.21.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/parca-dev/parca/releases/tag/v0.20.0","date":"2023-10-20T11:23:27Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.20.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/parca-dev/parca/releases/tag/v0.19.0","date":"2023-09-21T14:57:53Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.19.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/parca-dev/parca/releases/tag/v0.18.0","date":"2023-06-14T16:36:22Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.18.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/parca-dev/parca/releases/tag/v0.17.0","date":"2023-03-29T08:58:40Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.17.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/parca-dev/parca/releases/tag/v0.16.2","date":"2023-03-07T04:13:18Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.16.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/parca-dev/parca/releases/tag/v0.16.1","date":"2023-03-02T13:21:15Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.16.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/parca-dev/parca/releases/tag/v0.16.0","date":"2023-03-01T14:48:02Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.16.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/parca-dev/parca/releases/tag/v0.15.0","date":"2022-12-20T10:51:40Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.15.0"}]` | - |
| reliability.status_page | - | yes |
| security.gdpr | - | yes |
| security.scorecard | 5.5 | - |
| security.vulnerabilities | `{"count":0,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=go&package_name=github.com%2Fparca-dev%2Fparca&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":null}` | - |

## Capabilities (APM Tools)

| Capability | Parca | Skylight |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **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 | None | - |
| **Core** |  |  |
| Language agents | C, C++, Rust, Go, and more | Ruby, Rails, Sinatra, Grape |
| **Deployment** |  |  |
| Hosting | Self-hosted only | Cloud only |

*Source: Vioscale. Generated 2026-09-01T20:39:21.400Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*