Grafana Beyla 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?
Grafana Beyla
Zero-code eBPF auto-instrumentation for application metrics
VS
Apache SkyWalking
APM and observability for cloud-native architectures
| Feature | Grafana Beyla | Apache SkyWalking |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Monitoring & Status | Monitoring & Status |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Go | Java |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 2,048 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, binary | docker, kubernetes, helm |
| GitHub stars | ★ 2,083 | ★ 24,915 |
| First released | 2023 | 2015 |
| Replaces | Datadog APM, New Relic | New Relic, Datadog |
Why pick each one
Choose Apache SkyWalking if…
- Full observability suite
- Strong Apache governance
Frequently asked questions
Is Grafana Beyla or Apache SkyWalking better?
Neither is universally better. Apache SkyWalking has the larger community, while Grafana Beyla is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Grafana Beyla and Apache SkyWalking free and open-source?
Yes. Grafana Beyla 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 Grafana Beyla and Apache SkyWalking with Docker?
Grafana Beyla: yes. Apache SkyWalking: yes.