Naemon 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.

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FeatureNaemonApache SkyWalking
CategoryMonitoring & StatusMonitoring & Status
LicenseGPL-2.0Apache-2.0
LanguageCJava
Setup difficultyHardHard
Min. RAM256 MB2,048 MB
Deploymentbare-metal, sourcedocker, kubernetes, helm
GitHub stars★ 170★ 24,915
First released20142015
ReplacesSolarWinds, PRTGNew Relic, Datadog

Why pick each one

Choose Naemon if…

  • Faster than classic Nagios
  • Reuses Nagios plugins
Naemon details

Choose Apache SkyWalking if…

  • Full observability suite
  • Strong Apache governance
Apache SkyWalking details

Frequently asked questions

Is Naemon or Apache SkyWalking better?

Neither is universally better. Apache SkyWalking has the larger community; both share a hard setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are Naemon and Apache SkyWalking free and open-source?

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

Can I run Naemon and Apache SkyWalking with Docker?

Naemon: check the project docs for container support. Apache SkyWalking: yes.

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