head to head · open source
effect vs pinpoint
effect has 16,097 GitHub stars, 747 forks, 253 open issues and last shipped yesterday. pinpoint has 13,872 stars, 3,749 forks, 543 open issues and last shipped yesterday. effect leads on adoption by 16% (16,097 vs 13,872 stars). effect is written in TypeScript under MIT; pinpoint is written in Java under Apache-2.0. effect has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, pinpoint 27%. effect was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| effect | pinpoint | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 16K | ★ 14K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 747 | ⑂ 3.7K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick effect if
- You weight community size — 16K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick pinpoint if
- You want the pinpoint feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and pinpoint fits your workflow better
About effect
Effect is a TypeScript library for building robust, maintainable, type safe, and production grade applications. It lives in the TypeScript and JavaScript ecosystem, distributed as the core effect package alongside a monorepo of integration packages that extend it. The project is MIT licensed, has been developed for roughly seven years, and currently ships Effect V4 as a release candidate, with the main branch holding v4 development and the v3 branch retaining the previous line.
read the full effect overview →
About pinpoint
Pinpoint is an open source Application Performance Management (APM) tool built for large scale distributed systems. It is written primarily in Java and also supports applications written in PHP and Python through a separate agent repository. Inspired by Google's Dapper, it provides a way to analyze the overall structure of a system and how the components inside it are interconnected by tracing transactions across distributed applications. The project lives in the Java ecosystem, is licensed under Apache 2.0, and has been developed for around twelve years, with its current stable release being v3.1.0.…
read the full pinpoint overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is effect or pinpoint more popular?
effect has 16,097 GitHub stars and pinpoint has 13,872. effect has the larger community by that measure.
Are effect and pinpoint free?
Both are open source. effect is licensed under MIT and pinpoint under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between effect and pinpoint?
effect is written in TypeScript and pinpoint in Java. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, effect or pinpoint?
Choose effect if you want the larger community (16,097 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose pinpoint if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.