Ping 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?
Ping Exporter
Prometheus exporter for ICMP ping round-trip metrics
VS
Apache SkyWalking
APM and observability for cloud-native architectures
| Feature | Ping Exporter | Apache SkyWalking |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Monitoring & Status | Monitoring & Status |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Go | Java |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 2,048 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary, kubernetes | docker, kubernetes, helm |
| GitHub stars | ★ 631 | ★ 24,915 |
| First released | 2018 | 2015 |
| Replaces | PingPlotter, ThousandEyes | New Relic, Datadog |
Why pick each one
Choose Apache SkyWalking if…
- Full observability suite
- Strong Apache governance
Frequently asked questions
Is Ping Exporter or Apache SkyWalking better?
Neither is universally better. Apache SkyWalking has the larger community, while Ping Exporter is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Ping Exporter and Apache SkyWalking free and open-source?
Yes. Ping Exporter is licensed under MIT and Apache SkyWalking under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Ping Exporter and Apache SkyWalking with Docker?
Ping Exporter: yes. Apache SkyWalking: yes.