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Apache SkyWalking VS Glowroot

Compare Apache SkyWalking VS Glowroot and see what are their differences

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Apache SkyWalking logo Apache SkyWalking

Apache SkyWalking is an open-source application performance monitoring solution that provides tracking, metrics analysis, service mesh observability, alarm, and visualization.

Glowroot logo Glowroot

Open source Java APM, licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0.
  • Apache SkyWalking Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-21
  • Glowroot Landing page
    Landing page //
    2019-09-03

Apache SkyWalking features and specs

  • Comprehensive Observability
    Apache SkyWalking provides end-to-end observability of distributed systems including service, process, and container metrics, as well as logs and events, enabling holistic monitoring and performance optimization.
  • Distributed Tracing
    SkyWalking offers robust distributed tracing capabilities that allow users to trace requests end-to-end across various services and platforms, aiding in root cause analysis and performance monitoring.
  • Open Source
    Being an open-source project under the Apache umbrella, SkyWalking benefits from community contributions, regular updates, and improvements, offering transparency and flexibility.
  • Wide Protocol Support
    SkyWalking supports a wide range of protocols and platforms, such as HTTP, gRPC, Dubbo, and supports multiple languages including Java, .NET, Python, and more, making it versatile across different tech stacks.
  • Dashboarding and Visualization
    The platform provides powerful dashboards and visualization tools, allowing users to easily interpret data, create custom dashboards, and derive insights from visual metrics.

Possible disadvantages of Apache SkyWalking

  • Complex Setup
    Setting up and configuring SkyWalking can be complex, especially for organizations unfamiliar with distributed observability tools, potentially requiring significant time and expertise.
  • Scalability Challenges
    While SkyWalking is designed for distributed systems, scaling its deployment for very large environments might present challenges, necessitating careful architectural planning.
  • Resource Intensive
    SkyWalking can be resource-intensive, as it collects a large amount of telemetry data, which might lead to high overhead on system resources like CPU and memory.
  • Learning Curve
    Due to its comprehensive feature set and various configurations, there can be a steep learning curve associated with effectively utilizing SkyWalking, particularly for new users.
  • Limited UI Customization
    The user interface, while functional, offers limited customization options compared to some commercial observability solutions, which might be a limitation for users needing highly tailored dashboards.

Glowroot features and specs

  • Open Source
    Glowroot is an open-source application performance management tool, which means it is free to use and has a community-driven development model that encourages collaboration and transparency.
  • Ease of Use
    Glowroot is known for its user-friendly interface, which makes it easy to install, configure, and navigate through the application for both beginners and experienced users.
  • Lightweight
    Glowroot is designed to be lightweight with minimal overhead, ensuring that it does not significantly impact the performance of monitored applications.
  • Comprehensive Monitoring
    Glowroot provides detailed insights into application performance, including transaction response times, error rates, JVM metrics, and trace details, helping with effective troubleshooting.
  • Real-Time Monitoring
    It offers real-time monitoring of application performance, enabling quicker detection and resolution of issues as they arise.

Possible disadvantages of Glowroot

  • Feature Limitations
    While Glowroot offers essential features for performance monitoring, it may lack some advanced functionalities found in more comprehensive APM solutions, such as predictive analytics and machine learning capabilities.
  • Community Support
    Being an open-source tool, Glowroot relies on community support, which may not be as extensive or immediate as commercial APM solutions with dedicated support teams.
  • Scalability
    Glowroot might face challenges when scaling to monitor very large and complex systems, as it is primarily designed for simpler applications and environments.
  • Documentation
    Although Glowroot provides documentation, users may find it lacking in depth compared to the extensive documentation offered by some commercial APM tools.

Apache SkyWalking videos

+ Add

Chapter04 Session10 - Apache Skywalking by Sheng Wu

More videos:

  • Review - Apache SkyWalking | Top 42 Alternatives of Apache SkyWalking
  • Review - Observability in Service Mesh Powered by Envoy and Apache SkyWalking - Sheng Wu & Lizan Zhou

Glowroot videos

+ Add

DHIS2 Server Admin Workshop - tomcat and Glowroot setup

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Apache SkyWalking and Glowroot)

Apache SkyWalking

Glowroot

Monitoring Tools
68 68%
Monitoring Tools
32% 32
Log Management
63 63%
Log Management
37% 37
Performance Monitoring
52 52%
Performance Monitoring
48% 48
Development
100 100%
Development
0% 0

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Apache SkyWalking seems to be a lot more popular than Glowroot. While we know about 18 links to Apache SkyWalking, we've tracked only 1 mention of Glowroot. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Apache SkyWalking mentions (18)

  • I gave up on self-hosted Sentry
    A good APM tool I’ve been using for a few years is Apache Skywalking: https://skywalking.apache.org/ It might not do everything Sentry does but it definitely has helped with tracking down some issues, even production ones and runs in a fairly manageable setup (in comparison to how long even the Sentry self-hosted Docker Compose file is). What’s more, if you want, you can even use regular PostgreSQL as the backing... - Source: Hacker News / about 2 months ago
  • OpenTelemetry Tracing in < 200 lines of code
    > I maintain that any platform that isn’t using some sort of tracing system is practically negligent in their engineering duty. For some, it's difficult because many of the self-hostable out there are rather complex and have high requirements, like https://github.com/getsentry/self-hosted/blob/master/docker-compose.yml but it's not exactly ideal either. I wonder what other good options are out there, something... - Source: Hacker News / 9 months ago
  • 14 Monitoring Tools for Full-Stack Developers
    Apache SkyWalking is an open-source APM tool meant for distributed systems. It has support for distributed tracing, agents in multiple languages, and support for an eBPF agent. - Source: dev.to / 9 months ago
  • Release Radar · May 2024 Edition: Major updates from the open source community
    Are you working on microservices, cloud native, and container-based architectures? Then you need to check out Apache Skywalking. It's an Application Performance Monitoring (APM) system, that provides monitoring, tracing, and diagnosing capabilities for distributed systems in Cloud Native architectures. This latest update has hundreds of changes including support for Java 21 runtime, new functions and parameters,... - Source: dev.to / 12 months ago
  • Enhancing API Observability Series (Part 3): Tracing
    When choosing distributed tracing tools, considerations include your technology stack, business requirements, and monitoring complexity. Zipkin, SkyWalking, and OpenTelemetry are popular distributed tracing solutions, each with its unique features. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
View more

Glowroot mentions (1)

  • Splunk to Cut Workforce by 7% After Cisco Deal
    Java has an excellent one open source APM - https://glowroot.org/. Python and other tools - not so much. I wouldn't say Gartner created hype. Glowroot has been invaluable to us. Of course we run a massive footprint of 0.5m - 0.75m JVMs. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Apache SkyWalking and Glowroot, you can also consider the following products

Grafana - Data visualization & Monitoring with support for Graphite, InfluxDB, Prometheus, Elasticsearch and many more databases

Open Telemetry - An observability framework for cloud-native software.

NewRelic - New Relic is a Software Analytics company that makes sense of billions of metrics across millions of apps. We help the people who build modern software understand the stories their data is trying to tell them.

SigNoz - Open source alternative to Datadog

Datadog - See metrics from all of your apps, tools & services in one place with Datadog's cloud monitoring as a service solution. Try it for free.

AppDynamics - Get real-time insight from your apps using Application Performance Management—how they’re being used, how they’re performing, where they need help.

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