Apache SkyWalking

7.3easy start · #9 of 33
in Application Performance Monitoring

Free to practise onyes
Free trialnot on record
Well documentedyes
Runs where you workyes

Runs on api, Linux, Mac, self-hosted, Web, Windows.

Apache SkyWalking is ranked #9 of 33 in application performance monitoring on The Geeks Club. It runs on API, Linux, macOS, Self-hosted, Web, Windows. There is a free plan.

Apache SkyWalking plans and pricing

All plans

Apache SkyWalking Free Open-source observability platform; self-hosted deployment skywalking.apache.org · 4 Oct 2026

Compared on application performance monitoring

Free plan: Yes
Distributed tracing: Yes
Transaction tracing: Yes
Dependency mapping: Yes
Real user monitoring: Yes
Log correlation: Yes
Deployment model: self_hosted

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The record

Purpose: Apache SkyWalking is an observability platform for cloud-native systems and AI workloads.
Telemetry: The platform brings traces, metrics, logs, and profiling together to help users understand services.
Cloud-native coverage: The site describes exploring services, Kubernetes, and infrastructure with topology, telemetry, profiles, and alerts.
AI observability: The site says users can inspect model and MCP call latency and token rates, and explore AI agent conversations, tool calls, and recorded file changes.
Agents: The project lists agents for Java, Python, NodeJS, Go, Rust, PHP, Ruby, Nginx LUA, Kong, and client-side JavaScript.
Integrations: The site identifies OpenTelemetry OTLP, Istio, Envoy, Kubernetes, Grafana, and MCP among its integrations and ecosystem projects.
Storage: BanyanDB is described as an observability database for ingesting, analyzing, and storing metrics, tracing, and logging data.
Deployment: The get-started page provides Docker-based installation instructions for Linux, macOS, WSL, and Windows PowerShell.
Security: Horizon UI documents Content-Security-Policy, strict session cookies, no-store API responses, and optional login auditing.
Download verification: The downloads page says Apache source releases are official artifacts and recommends verifying downloads with PGP or SHA512 signatures.
Experimental component: The GraalVM distribution is explicitly marked experimental.
Compatibility limit: Horizon UI supports SkyWalking natively since v11 and partially for v10.
Support: The project directs users to GitHub discussions for questions and issues and provides a developer mailing list and Slack community contact instructions.
Project governance: The site identifies Apache SkyWalking as an Apache Software Foundation project.
Price from: Free

Where it ranks on The Geeks Club

Best Application Performance Monitoring in 2026#9 of 33
Best Distributed Tracing Tools in 2026#7 of 29

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Sources

skywalking.apache.org· checked 4 Oct 2026
skywalking.apache.org/docs/· checked 4 Oct 2026
skywalking.apache.org/get-started/· checked 4 Oct 2026
skywalking.apache.org/docs/skywalking-horizon-ui/latest/setup· checked 4 Oct 2026
skywalking.apache.org/downloads/· checked 4 Oct 2026