Graphite 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?
FeatureGraphiteApache SkyWalking
CategoryMonitoring & StatusMonitoring & Status
LicenseApache-2.0Apache-2.0
LanguageJavaScriptJava
Setup difficultyMediumHard
Min. RAM512 MB2,048 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metal, sourcedocker, kubernetes, helm
GitHub stars★ 6,102★ 24,915
First released20082015
ReplacesDatadogNew Relic, Datadog

Why pick each one

Choose Graphite if…

  • Simple metric protocol
  • Mature and stable
Graphite details

Choose Apache SkyWalking if…

  • Full observability suite
  • Strong Apache governance
Apache SkyWalking details

Frequently asked questions

Is Graphite or Apache SkyWalking better?

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

Are Graphite and Apache SkyWalking free and open-source?

Yes. Graphite 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 Graphite and Apache SkyWalking with Docker?

Graphite: yes. Apache SkyWalking: yes.

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