Top 7 Free Distributed Tracing Tools [updated for 2022]
HomeDemoOpenTelemetryInstrumentationsGitHubGet started Getting started Newsletter open in new window GitHub open in new window Download open in new windowGuide Introduction Getting started Installation Configuration Alerting and Notifications Converting spans to metrics Debugging issues Data Ingestion OpenTelemetry Collector Vector Logs Jaeger Agent Zipkin Spans Prometheus Metrics OpenTelemetry Distro Go Python Ruby Node.js .NET Java PHP Tutorials Gin and GORM Django and ORM Flask and SQLAlchemy Ruby on Rails and ActiveRecord Monitoring cache stats using OpenTelemetry Metrics Advanced Keycloak Auth Google Auth Cloudflare Auth Querying Spans Querying Metrics Contributing ClickHouse tips Compare Distributed Tracing Tools What is a distributed tracing tool? Why do you need a distributed tracing tool? Open source tracing tools Uptrace SigNoz Jaeger Sentry SkyWalking Zipkin Grafana Tempo Paid cloud tracing tools DataDog Competitors and Alternatives Grafana Alternatives DataDog vs Prometheus OpenTelemetry APM Free and Open Source Distributed Tracing ToolsTracing tools help you manage, monitor, and assess performance of your cloud infrastructure, services, and applications, and make sure your customers get the best digital experience.The best tracing tools can help you eliminate performance bottlenecks and recover from incidents faster. Use this guide to pick the right one for you.What is a distributed tracing tool?Why do you need a distributed tracing tool?Open source tracing toolsUptraceSigNozJaegerSentrySkyWalkingZipkinGrafana TempoPaid cloud tracing tools# What is a distributed tracing tool?Distributed tracingopen in new window tools allow you to see how a request progresses through different services and systems, timings of each operation, any logs and errors as they occur.In a distributed environment, tracing tools also help you understand relationships and interactions between microservices. Tracing tools gives an insight into how a particular microservice is performing and how that service affects other microservices.# Why do you need a distributed tracing tool?Get a centralized view. Tracing provides a single view of your distributed microservices. Your team can more easily understand how an application is built and how services interact with each other.Fix bottlenecks faster. By having all the service's performance in hand, you can quickly pinpoint failures and identify performance bottlenecks.Recover from incidents faster. A gread tracing tool can notify you when the site is down or a performance anomaly is detected.# Open source tracing tools# UptraceUptraceopen in new window is an OpenTelemetry tracing tool that monitors performance, errors, and logs. Main features include an intuitive query builder, rich dashboards, percentiles, users and projects management.Tech stack:Backend: GoFrontend: Vue.jsInstrumentation: OpenTelemetry / OTLPStorage: ClickHouse with S3Pros:Supports both tracing and metricsRich UI with chartsAdvanced filtering capabilitiesSimple setup with ClickHouse being the only dependencyOpenTelemetry support including pre-configured distrosCons:ClickHouse is the only supported DBMS# SigNozSigNozopen in new window is an open-source APM. It helps developers monitor their applications & troubleshoot problems.SigNoz provides a unified UI for metrics and traces so that there is no need to switch between different tools such as Jaeger and Prometheus.Tech stack:Backend: GoFrontend: ReactInstrumentation: OpenTelemetry / OTLPStorage: ClickHousePros:Native OpenTelemetry supportRich UI with chartsMetrics support using Prometheus as a backend and custom UITraces visualization using Flamegraphs and Gantt chartsFilters based on tags, status codes, service names, operation, etc.Alarms# JaegerJaegeropen in new window is a distributed tracing platform created by Uber Technologies. It can be used for monitoring microservices-based distributed systems.Tech stack:Backend: GoFrontend: ReactInstrumentation: OpenTelemetry / OTLPStorage: Cassandra, Elasticsearch; ClickHouse using a pluginPros:Stable and well-known projectAdaptive samplingSupport for multiple DBMS via pluginsSponsored by CNCFCons:No charts / percentilesLimited filtering capabilitiesNot all plugins are maintained and usable# SentrySentryopen in new window tracks your software performance, measures metrics like throughput and latency, and displays the impact of errors across multiple systems.Tech stack:Backend: PythonFrontend: ReactInstrumentation: Sentry SDKStorage: Kafka, Redis, PostgreSQL, ClickHousePros:Excellent errors monitoringQuality SDK for Go, Python, Ruby, .NET, and PHPFriendly UICons:Complex setupNo OpenTelemetry supportThe UI is built around errors monitoring# SkyWalkingSkyWalkingopen in new window is an open source APM system, including monitoring, tracing, diagnosing capabilities for distributed system in Cloud Native architecture.Tech stack:Backend: JavaFrontend: Vue.jsInstrumentation: SkyWalkingStorage: ElasticSearch, MySQL, TiDB, InfluxDB, and morePros:Rich UI with chartsGood metrics support (including dashboards)AlarmsSupport for multiple DBMSCons:Complex setupComplex and overloaded UIConfusing tracing UIOpenTelemetry support requires OpenTelemetry Collector# ZipkinZipkinopen in new window is a distributed tracing system. It helps gather timing data needed to troubleshoot latency problems in service architectures. Features include both the collection and lookup of this data.Zipkin's UI is minimalistic, but you can replace it with Grafana/Kibana configured to work with Zipkin data source.Tech stack:Backend: JavaFrontend: ReactInstrumentation: Zipkin span model; OpenTelemetry via adapterStorage: MySQL, Cassandra, or Elasticsearch.Pros:Stable and well-known projectSupport for multiple DBMSCons:No active developmentLimited UI and filtering capabilitiesOpenTelemetry support requires an adapterNo ClickHouse support# Grafana TempoGrafana Tempoopen in new window is an open source, easy-to-use, and high-scale distributed tracing backend. Tempo is cost-efficient, requiring only object storage to operate, and is deeply integrated with Grafana, Prometheus, and Loki. Tempo can ingest common open source tracing protocols, including Jaeger, Zipkin, and OpenTelemetry.Tech stack:Backend: GoFrontend: ReactInstrumentation: OpenTelemetry / OTLPStorage: Grafana TempoPros:Integration with Grafana metrics dashboardOpenTelemetry supportCons:The UI is built around metrics and feels awkward / clumsy for everything elseLimited filtering capabilities# Paid cloud tracing toolsIf you looking for a paid tracing tool in the cloud, see our guide for DataDog competitors and alternatives.Last Updated: DataDog Competitors and Alternatives