Apache SkyWalking
Observability platform that unifies service performance, infrastructure, and AI monitoring across distributed cloud-native systems
- Also known as
- apache-skywalking
What is Apache SkyWalking?
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.
Apache SkyWalking pricing
We don't have Apache SkyWalking's full plan breakdown yet (its pricing page resisted automated reading). Here's what we could confirm. Always check live pricing for exact numbers.
What Apache SkyWalking does
The capabilities that matter for apm tools, normalised so it lines up with every alternative. “-” means we haven't confirmed it, not that it's missing.
- Auto-instrumentation
- ✓
- Distributed tracing
- ✓
- Service map
- ✓
- Code / continuous profiling
- ✓
- Database monitoring
- ✓
- Error analytics
- ✓
- Real-user monitoring
- ✓
- SLO / error-budget tracking
- -
- Anomaly / root-cause AI
- ✓
- OpenTelemetry support
- OTLP ingest
- Language agents
- 10+ language agents supported
- Hosting
- Cloud + self-hosted
Platform & deployment
Independently observed- CLI
- Web
- Linux
- Cloud / SaaS
- Self-hosted
Integrations (33)
Independently observed- Telegraf•
- Apache Pulsar•
- Apache APISIX
- Grafana
- OpenTelemetry Collector
- Amazon Bedrock
- OpenAI
- WeChat Mini Program
- Alipay Mini Program
- Kafka
- MySQL
- PostgreSQL
- Redis
- Envoy
- DeepSeek
- Claude Sonnet
- Zipkin←
- OpenTelemetry←
- Prometheus←
- Zabbix←
- Fluentd←
- Flink•
- Kong•
- Apache RocketMQ•
- Apache ActiveMQ•
- Pulsar•
- ClickHouse•
- MongoDB•
- Nginx•
- Kubernetes•
- Cilium•
- BookKeeper•
- ChatGPT⇄
Security & compliance
Known vulnerabilities: 0 (0 in the last 12 months) sourcea count reflects scale & disclosure, not quality
Apache SkyWalking FAQ
Common questions about Apache SkyWalking, answered from independent, dated evidence.
What is Apache SkyWalking?
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/
Is Apache SkyWalking free to use?
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/
What platforms does Apache SkyWalking support?
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/
Can Apache SkyWalking be self-hosted?
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/
What does Apache SkyWalking integrate with?
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/
Is Apache SkyWalking open source?
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.
Apache SkyWalking alternatives
Other apm tools we track, ranked by the same independent score.
- BlackfireWeb crawling, testing, and data extraction toolmedium · 70%
- Pyroscopemedium · 59%
- AppDynamicsMonitor and optimize application performance across hybrid and on-premises environmentsmedium · 71%
- InstanaAutomated, AI-powered full-stack observability for applications and infrastructurelow · 41%
- Azure Application InsightsMonitor your complete technology stack across applications, infrastructure, and networkslow · 39%
- DynatraceA software intelligence platform providing unified monitoring, security investigations, and compliance tracking for cloud-native applications and infrastructurelow · 39%
Compare Apache SkyWalking
Side by side against other apm tools, attribute by attribute, with a source on every value.
The vioscaleAI score: one lens on the evidence
Not user reviews and not a paid placement: a confidence-weighted blend of the independent signals below (adoption, activity, security posture, and more), which you can sort and re-weight yourself. Vendors can correct their listing but can never move their rank, and stars are weighted low as a vanity metric. It is one way to read the evidence for Apache SkyWalking, not the verdict.
| Signal | Score | Weight | Contribution | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Capabilities | 92 | 0.06 | 5.8 | ✓ |
| Development activity | 42 | 0.09 | 4.0 | ✓ |
| Security score | 70 | 0.04 | 2.9 | ✓ |
| Integrations | 37 | 0.07 | 2.7 | ✓ |
| Release cadence | 48 | 0.05 | 2.5 | ✓ |
| Stars | 83 | 0.03 | 2.2 | ✓ |
| Dependent projects | 34 | 0.06 | 2.1 | ✓ |
| Security posture | 0 | 0.12 | 0.0 | - |
| Package downloads | 0 | 0.14 | 0.0 | - |
| Developer Q&A activity | 0 | 0.06 | 0.0 | - |
Computed . Re-weight it by intent, or see the full method.
All data & sourcesshow ↓
Every value we hold, with its source, retrieval date, and confidence. This is the evidence behind the score: don't trust it, verify it.
Activity
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Commits last 30d | 21 | mediumsource · 2026-10-14 · 65% |
Adoption
Content
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Faq | 6 items | mediumsource · 2026-09-10 · 66% |
Features
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Capabilities | Rum: Yes · Hosting: both · Languages: 10+ language agents supported · Service map: Yes · Otel support: ingest · Db monitoring: Yes | mediumsource · 2026-10-14 · 60% |
Integrations
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Count | 18 | mediumsource · 2026-10-14 · 60% |
Language
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Primary | Java | highsource · 2026-10-14 · 90% |
License
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Spdx | Apache-2.0 | highsource · 2026-10-14 · 95% |
Pricing
Release
Security
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