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Zipkin vs Apache SkyWalking: catalog facts
Zipkin	Apache SkyWalking
Free Free and open source. Hosting, hardware and any external services are separate.	Free Free and open source. Hosting, hardware and any external services are separate.
Self-hosted	Self-hosted
Provides trace collection and lookup Shows how requests move through services	Provides application-performance views Supports instrumented cloud-native systems
Requires instrumented applications and storage configuration.	Requires deploying collectors and configuring supported instrumentation.
Self-hosted	Self-hosted
Open source	Open source
License: Apache-2.0	License: Apache-2.0
Not stated if an account is needed	Not stated if an account is needed
Not stated if it works offline	Not stated if it works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 22, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 22, 2026

Catalog facts only. Anything “not stated” is unconfirmed. Check full listings for details.