Pushgateway 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.
| Feature | Pushgateway | Apache SkyWalking |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 87 · Excellent | 97 · Excellent |
| Category | Monitoring & Status | Monitoring & Status |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Go | Java |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 32 MB | 2,048 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, binary | docker, kubernetes, helm |
| GitHub stars | ★ 3,369 | ★ 24,962 |
| First released | 2015 | 2015 |
| Replaces | Datadog | New Relic, Datadog |
What are Pushgateway and Apache SkyWalking?
Pushgateway
The Prometheus Pushgateway allows ephemeral and batch jobs to expose their metrics to Prometheus. Jobs push metrics to the gateway, which Prometheus then scrapes on its regular schedule.
- Accepts pushed metrics
- Bridges batch jobs to Prometheus
- Persists metrics to disk
- Tiny footprint
Apache SkyWalking
Apache SkyWalking is an APM and observability platform for distributed systems, especially microservices and cloud-native architectures. It provides tracing, metrics, logging, and service topology analysis.
- Distributed tracing and metrics
- Service topology maps
- eBPF and OTel integration
- Alerting engine
Pushgateway vs Apache SkyWalking: key differences
Pushgateway is written in Go, while Apache SkyWalking is built with Java. Pushgateway is the lighter option, starting around 32 MB of RAM against 2,048 MB for Apache SkyWalking. Apache SkyWalking has the considerably larger community, at 24,962 GitHub stars versus 3,369.
Why pick each one
Choose Pushgateway if…
- Solves batch job monitoring
- Simple to run
Watch out for
- Not for high-frequency metrics
- Can become a single point of failure
Choose Apache SkyWalking if…
- Full observability suite
- Strong Apache governance
Watch out for
- Steep learning curve
- Storage backend required
Frequently asked questions
Is Pushgateway or Apache SkyWalking better?
Neither is universally better. Apache SkyWalking has the larger community, while Pushgateway is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Pushgateway and Apache SkyWalking free and open-source?
Yes. Pushgateway 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 Pushgateway and Apache SkyWalking with Docker?
Pushgateway: yes. Apache SkyWalking: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Pushgateway or Apache SkyWalking?
Pushgateway has the smaller minimum footprint at 32 MB of RAM, compared to about 2,048 MB for Apache SkyWalking. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.