Alternatives to Jaeger
Follow requests across services to investigate distributed-system latency. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
Jaeger
Follow requests across services to investigate distributed-system latency.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as Jaeger.
Zipkin
Collect trace timing data to troubleshoot service-to-service latency.
Zipkin collects and looks up trace timing data across services under Apache-2.0, similarly requiring instrumented applications and storage configuration.
Grafana Tempo
Store and query distributed traces with a dedicated tracing back end.
Grafana Tempo stores traces in object storage and integrates with Grafana, but is licensed AGPL-3.0 and needs a separate visualization setup.
Apache SkyWalking
Observe distributed applications through traces, metrics and related service information.
Apache SkyWalking adds application-performance views and service metrics beyond traces, but requires deploying collectors and configuring supported instrumentation.
Pinpoint
Trace application requests across distributed services.
Pinpoint visualizes service relationships and request paths, but supported languages and frameworks depend on its compatible agents.
SigNoz
Open-source full-stack observability platform built on OpenTelemetry and ClickHouse.
SigNoz combines traces with APM, logs and metrics on OpenTelemetry and ClickHouse, adding the overhead of running a ClickHouse-backed stack.
Uptrace
Explore traces, metrics and logs collected through OpenTelemetry.
Uptrace links traces with metrics and logs collected through OpenTelemetry, under AGPL-3.0 rather than Apache-2.0, with freemium pricing.
HyperDX
Investigate application failures using linked logs, traces and related telemetry.
HyperDX links traces with logs and related telemetry for debugging production failures, using freemium pricing and requiring supporting data storage.
OpenObserve
Collect logs, metrics and traces in a unified observability application.
OpenObserve stores traces alongside logs and metrics in one application under AGPL-3.0, with enterprise features priced separately.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
OpenTelemetry Collector
Receive, process and export telemetry through a vendor-neutral collector.
Grafana
Dashboard and visualization front end for metrics, logs and traces.
Coroot
Investigate application behavior using automatically collected observability data.
Prometheus
Metrics database that scrapes targets and evaluates alerting rules.
Grafana Loki
Collect and query application logs using label-based indexing.
Grafana Alloy
An open-source telemetry collector from Grafana Labs that gathers and forwards logs, metrics and traces.
