ntopng 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?
FeaturentopngApache SkyWalking
CategoryMonitoring & StatusMonitoring & Status
LicenseGPL-3.0Apache-2.0
LanguageLuaJava
Setup difficultyMediumHard
Min. RAM512 MB2,048 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metaldocker, kubernetes, helm
GitHub stars★ 8,069★ 24,915
First released20132015
ReplacesSolarWinds NetFlowNew Relic, Datadog

Why pick each one

Choose ntopng if…

  • Deep network visibility
  • Fast packet processing
ntopng details

Choose Apache SkyWalking if…

  • Full observability suite
  • Strong Apache governance
Apache SkyWalking details

Frequently asked questions

Is ntopng or Apache SkyWalking better?

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

Are ntopng and Apache SkyWalking free and open-source?

Yes. ntopng is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Apache SkyWalking under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run ntopng and Apache SkyWalking with Docker?

ntopng: yes. Apache SkyWalking: yes.

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