SHSelfHostIndex

IPMI Exporter 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?
IP IPMI Exporter Prometheus exporter for IPMI hardware sensors VS AP Apache SkyWalking APM and observability for cloud-native architectures
FeatureIPMI ExporterApache SkyWalking
CategoryMonitoring & StatusMonitoring & Status
LicenseMITApache-2.0
LanguageGoJava
Setup difficultyMediumHard
Min. RAM64 MB2,048 MB
Deploymentdocker, binarydocker, kubernetes, helm
GitHub stars★ 612★ 24,915
First released20172015
ReplacesDell OpenManageNew Relic, Datadog

Why pick each one

Choose IPMI Exporter if…

  • Released under the MIT license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Written in Go
  • Tiny footprint — runs in 64 MB RAM
IPMI Exporter details

Choose Apache SkyWalking if…

  • Full observability suite
  • Strong Apache governance
Apache SkyWalking details

Frequently asked questions

Is IPMI Exporter or Apache SkyWalking better?

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

Are IPMI Exporter and Apache SkyWalking free and open-source?

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

Can I run IPMI Exporter and Apache SkyWalking with Docker?

IPMI Exporter: yes. Apache SkyWalking: yes.

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