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Zipkin vs Grafana Tempo: catalog facts
Zipkin	Grafana Tempo
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	Integrates with Grafana trace exploration Uses object storage for trace data
Requires instrumented applications and storage configuration.	Requires trace instrumentation, collectors and a separate visualization setup.
Self-hosted	Self-hosted
Open source	Open source
License: Apache-2.0	License: AGPL-3.0
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.