Glances vs SkyWalking
Side-by-side comparison of features, pricing, ratings, and alternatives.
Glances is an open‑source, cross‑platform monitoring tool that provides a concise, real‑time view of system resources such as CPU, memory, disk I/O, network, and processes. It runs on Linux, Windows, macOS and can be accessed via a web interface, making it ideal for both local and remote monitoring. Designed for system administrators and DevOps teams, Glances aggregates metrics into a single dashboard, supports customizable alerts, and integrates with scripts or APIs for automated workflows. Its lightweight design ensures minimal overhead while delivering comprehensive performance insights.
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.
- Fully open‑source and free
- Runs on all major operating systems
- Lightweight with low resource overhead
- Extensible via plugins and API
- 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
- No native mobile app
- Limited built‑in visualization compared to commercial tools
- Alerting requires manual configuration or external scripts
- Self‑hosting requires operational expertise
- UI can become cluttered in very large topologies
- Limited out‑of‑the‑box support for proprietary SaaS services
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The Verdict
AI-generated from listing dataGlances is a lightweight, cross‑platform system monitor ideal for admins needing simple host metrics; SkyWalking is a richer APM for cloud‑native microservices, requiring more setup.
Key differences
- •Scope: Glances monitors OS‑level resources; SkyWalking tracks distributed traces and service‑level metrics.
- •Deployment complexity: Glances runs as a single binary; SkyWalking must be self‑hosted and integrated with back‑ends.
- •Visualization: Glances offers basic terminal/web UI; SkyWalking provides dynamic topology maps and advanced dashboards.
- •Extensibility: Glances plugins focus on host sensors; SkyWalking plugins target services, databases, and service meshes.
Pricing & value
Both are free, but Glances delivers immediate value with zero‑cost setup versus SkyWalking's higher operational overhead.
Ease of use / learning curve
Glances runs instantly on major OSes; SkyWalking requires self‑hosting, backend configuration, and understanding of APM concepts.
Features & depth
SkyWalking offers end‑to‑end tracing, latency/QPS metrics, and service‑mesh integration, far beyond Glances' host‑level metrics.
Integrations & ecosystem
SkyWalking integrates with Elasticsearch, MySQL, Docker, Kubernetes and provides Grafana data source; Glances limited to host plugins and InfluxDB.
Collaboration
SkyWalking’s web UI, topology maps, and alerting policies support team‑wide observability; Glances lacks native multi‑user features.
Scalability
Designed for distributed microservice environments; Glances monitors single hosts and does not scale to service‑level observability.
Support
Both provide community support via email and issue trackers; no commercial support listed for either.
Choose Glances if…
System admins needing quick, low‑overhead host monitoring on Windows, macOS or Linux.
Choose SkyWalking if…
DevOps teams managing cloud‑native microservices that require tracing, metrics, and service‑mesh visibility.
Common questions
Is there any cost to use either tool?
Both are free and open source; no licensing fees are mentioned.
Can I monitor Docker containers with both tools?
Yes. Glances has a Docker plugin; SkyWalking includes Docker integration via its plugin system.
Do either tools provide a native mobile app for alerts?
Neither product mentions a native mobile app; Glances notes no mobile app, and SkyWalking does not specify one.