SkyWalking vs Uptrace
Side-by-side comparison of features, pricing, ratings, and alternatives.
Apache SkyWalking is a powerful observability platform that provides distributed tracing, metrics, and logging for modern cloud‑native applications. It helps developers and DevOps teams gain deep insight into performance bottlenecks across complex microservice architectures. Designed for self‑hosted deployments, SkyWalking integrates seamlessly with popular ecosystems like Kubernetes, Docker, Elasticsearch, and MySQL, offering a free, community‑driven solution for end‑to‑end monitoring.
Uptrace is an application performance monitoring platform built directly on the OpenTelemetry standard, storing data in ClickHouse for fast queries over large volumes. It brings traces, metrics, and logs into a single dashboard with service dependency graphs and RED-metric views (rate, errors, duration), so teams can trace a request across microservices and correlate it with logs and metrics without switching tools. The platform accepts data from OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, Vector, FluentBit, and CloudWatch, and it can run as a managed cloud service or be self-hosted via Docker, Kubernetes, or Ansible. Uptrace ships an MCP server so AI assistants like Claude Code can query telemetry in plain language, and its open-source Community Edition is free forever with no feature caps on self-hosted installs, while Cloud is priced per GB ingested with a free 50 GB/month tier.
- Free and open source with active community
- Supports multiple data backends including Elasticsearch and MySQL
- Rich tracing and metrics capabilities for cloud‑native stacks
- Extensible plugin system for custom integrations
- Free, fully-featured open-source self-hosted edition with no artificial feature caps
- Per-GB pricing with no per-seat fees keeps cost predictable as team size grows
- Built on OpenTelemetry standards, avoiding vendor lock-in on instrumentation
- Unifies traces, metrics, and logs in one place rather than requiring separate tools
- Self‑hosting requires operational expertise
- UI can become cluttered in very large topologies
- Limited out‑of‑the‑box support for proprietary SaaS services
- Self-hosting requires operating ClickHouse and related infrastructure, adding operational overhead
- Smaller ecosystem and community than established players like Grafana or Datadog
- Cloud free tier's 50 GB/month allowance is modest for larger production workloads
More alternatives & similar tools
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Alternatives to Uptrace
View all →The Verdict
AI-generated from listing dataUptrace offers a SaaS‑first, OpenTelemetry‑native APM with unified traces, metrics, and logs, while SkyWalking is a fully free, self‑hosted solution focused on tracing and metrics for cloud‑native stacks.
Key differences
- •Uptrace provides a managed cloud tier (SaaS) plus a free self‑hosted edition; SkyWalking is only self‑hosted.
- •Uptrace unifies logs, metrics, and traces on ClickHouse; SkyWalking focuses on traces and metrics, storing data in Elasticsearch or MySQL.
- •Uptrace ships with built‑in service dependency graphs, RED metrics, and an MCP server for AI assistants; SkyWalking offers dynamic topology maps and a plugin system for custom data sources.
- •Uptrace integrates directly with OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, Vector, FluentBit, and AWS CloudWatch; SkyWalking’s key integrations are Elasticsearch, MySQL, Docker, and Kubernetes.
Pricing & value
SkyWalking is completely free open source; Uptrace’s free tier caps at 50 GB/month and larger use incurs per‑GB fees.
Ease of use / learning curve
Uptrace offers a managed SaaS option requiring no infrastructure, whereas SkyWalking must be self‑hosted and configured.
Features & depth
Uptrace includes logs, RED metrics, service graphs, and an MCP server; SkyWalking lacks native log handling.
Integrations & ecosystem
Uptrace supports OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, Vector, FluentBit, and CloudWatch; SkyWalking’s integrations are limited to Elasticsearch, MySQL, Docker, Kubernetes.
Support
Uptrace offers paid support on cloud plans in addition to community channels; SkyWalking provides only community email/forum support.
Scalability
Built on ClickHouse, Uptrace handles very large telemetry volumes efficiently; SkyWalking relies on Elasticsearch/MySQL which may need more tuning.
Choose SkyWalking if…
Organizations with strict zero‑cost budgets that prefer self‑hosting and focus mainly on tracing/metrics.
Choose Uptrace if…
Teams that want low‑ops SaaS or a unified logs‑metrics‑traces platform and can pay for larger volumes.
Common questions
Is there any cost to use SkyWalking?
No, SkyWalking is free open source; there are no licensing fees.
Can Uptrace handle log data out of the box?
Yes, Uptrace unifies logs with traces and metrics from OpenTelemetry sources.
What storage backend does each product require?
Uptrace uses ClickHouse (managed or self‑hosted); SkyWalking stores data in Elasticsearch or MySQL.