Cloudprober 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?
FeatureCloudproberApache SkyWalking
CategoryMonitoring & StatusMonitoring & Status
LicenseApache-2.0Apache-2.0
LanguageGoJava
Setup difficultyMediumHard
Min. RAM128 MB2,048 MB
Deploymentdocker, kubernetes, binarydocker, kubernetes, helm
GitHub stars★ 694★ 24,915
First released20172015
ReplacesPingdom, CatchpointNew Relic, Datadog

Why pick each one

Choose Cloudprober if…

  • Cloud-native target discovery
  • Single static binary
Cloudprober details

Choose Apache SkyWalking if…

  • Full observability suite
  • Strong Apache governance
Apache SkyWalking details

Frequently asked questions

Is Cloudprober or Apache SkyWalking better?

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

Are Cloudprober and Apache SkyWalking free and open-source?

Yes. Cloudprober 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 Cloudprober and Apache SkyWalking with Docker?

Cloudprober: yes. Apache SkyWalking: yes.

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