cAdvisor vs Apache SkyWalking

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted monitoring & status options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
FeaturecAdvisorApache SkyWalking
CategoryMonitoring & StatusMonitoring & Status
LicenseApache-2.0Apache-2.0
LanguageGoJava
Setup difficultyEasyHard
Min. RAM64 MB2,048 MB
Deploymentdocker, kubernetes, binarydocker, kubernetes, helm
GitHub stars★ 19,342★ 24,915
First released20142015
ReplacesDatadogNew Relic, Datadog

Why pick each one

Choose cAdvisor if…

  • Zero configuration
  • Lightweight
cAdvisor details

Choose Apache SkyWalking if…

  • Full observability suite
  • Strong Apache governance
Apache SkyWalking details

Frequently asked questions

Is cAdvisor or Apache SkyWalking better?

Neither is universally better. Apache SkyWalking has the larger community, while cAdvisor is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.

Are cAdvisor and Apache SkyWalking free and open-source?

Yes. cAdvisor is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Apache SkyWalking under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run cAdvisor and Apache SkyWalking with Docker?

cAdvisor: yes. Apache SkyWalking: yes.

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