GoAccess 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?
FeatureGoAccessApache SkyWalking
CategoryMonitoring & StatusMonitoring & Status
LicenseMITApache-2.0
LanguageCJava
Setup difficultyEasyHard
Min. RAM64 MB2,048 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metal, binarydocker, kubernetes, helm
GitHub stars★ 20,762★ 24,915
First released20102015
ReplacesGoogle AnalyticsNew Relic, Datadog

Why pick each one

Choose GoAccess if…

  • Extremely fast and lightweight
  • Works fully offline
GoAccess details

Choose Apache SkyWalking if…

  • Full observability suite
  • Strong Apache governance
Apache SkyWalking details

Frequently asked questions

Is GoAccess or Apache SkyWalking better?

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

Are GoAccess and Apache SkyWalking free and open-source?

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

Can I run GoAccess and Apache SkyWalking with Docker?

GoAccess: yes. Apache SkyWalking: yes.

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