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No. 4 of 33 ·Application Performance Monitoring

Apache SkyWalking

Web · Windows · Mac · Linux · Self-hosted · API

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Freedom report

Three barsScore 6.6

  • Free tierA free tier is on its own pricing page
  • Open codeNo open-source code on record
  • Runs widely4 of 6 device platforms
  • DocumentedPlans, terms and facts published

Apache SkyWalking is a self-hosted observability platform for cloud-native systems and AI workloads. It combines traces, metrics, logs, and profiling to help users inspect services, Kubernetes, and infrastructure through topology views, telemetry, profiles, and alerts. For AI workloads, users can examine model and MCP call latency and token rates, as well as agent conversations, tool calls, and recorded file changes. The project lists agents for Java, Python, NodeJS, Go, Rust, PHP, Ruby, Nginx LUA, Kong, and client-side JavaScript. Its integrations and ecosystem include OpenTelemetry OTLP, Istio, Envoy, Kubernetes, Grafana, and MCP. BanyanDB is described as a database for ingesting, analyzing, and storing metrics, tracing, and logging data. Docker installation instructions cover Linux, macOS, WSL, and Windows PowerShell. Horizon UI supports SkyWalking natively from v11 and partially for v10. The project documents several Horizon UI security controls, and recommends verifying official Apache source releases with PGP or SHA512 signatures. The GraalVM distribution is marked experimental.

Who it is for

Apache SkyWalking suits teams operating cloud-native systems or AI workloads that need to inspect telemetry and service relationships. It is for users prepared to deploy and manage a self-hosted platform.

What is good

  • Combines traces, metrics, logs, and profiling.
  • Provides views of AI calls and agent activity.
  • Lists agents across multiple languages and systems.
  • Docker installation instructions cover Linux, macOS, WSL, and Windows.

What to know first

  • Self-hosted deployment is required.
  • Horizon UI supports SkyWalking natively from v11 and partially for v10.
  • GraalVM distribution is marked experimental.

Verdict

Apache SkyWalking covers service observability and AI workload inspection in a self-hosted package. Its Horizon UI compatibility varies by SkyWalking version, and the GraalVM distribution is experimental.

Apache SkyWalking plans and pricing

All plans
Apache SkyWalking Free Open-source observability platform; self-hosted deployment skywalking.apache.org · 4 Oct 2026

Compared on application performance monitoring

Free plan
Yes
Distributed tracing
Yes
Transaction tracing
Yes
Dependency mapping
Yes
Real user monitoring
Yes
Log correlation
Yes
Deployment model
self_hosted

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