head to head · open source
Grafana vs dd-trace-java
Grafana has 77,638 GitHub stars, 14,905 forks, 3,326 open issues and last shipped yesterday. dd-trace-java has 738 stars, 364 forks, 478 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Grafana leads on adoption by 10,420% (77,638 vs 738 stars). Grafana is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; dd-trace-java is written in Java under Apache-2.0. Grafana has attracted 19% as many forks as stars, dd-trace-java 49%. Grafana 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Grafana | dd-trace-java | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 78K | ★ 738 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Java |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 15K | ⑂ 364 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Grafana if
- You weight community size — 78K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick dd-trace-java if
- You want the dd-trace-java 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 dd-trace-java fits your workflow better
About Grafana
The open source platform for monitoring and observability Grafana allows you to query, visualize, alert on and understand your metrics no matter where they are stored. Create, explore, and share dashboards with your team and foster a data driven culture: Visualizations: Fast and flexible client side graphs with a multitude of options. Panel plugins offer many different ways to visualize metrics and logs. Dynamic Dashboards: Create dynamic & reusable dashboards with template variables that appear as dropdowns at the top of the dashboard. Explore Metrics: Explore your data through ad hoc queries and dynamic…
read the full Grafana overview →
About dd-trace-java
Datadog Java APM This repository contains dd trace java , Datadog's APM client Java library. dd trace java contains APIs to automatically or manually trace and profile Java applications. These features power Distributed Tracing with Automatic Instrumentation, Continuous Profiling, Error Tracking, Continuous Integration Visibility, Deployment Tracking, Code Hotspots and more. Getting Started To use and configure, check out the [setup documentation][setup docs]. For advanced usage, check out the [configuration reference][configuration reference] and [custom instrumentation API][api docs]. Confused about the…
read the full dd-trace-java overview →
More in Infrastructure & Operations
Related comparisons
More Monitoring & Observability projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Monitoring & Observability field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Grafana or dd-trace-java more popular?
Grafana has 77,638 GitHub stars and dd-trace-java has 738. Grafana has the larger community by that measure.
Are Grafana and dd-trace-java free?
Both are open source. Grafana is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and dd-trace-java under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Grafana and dd-trace-java?
Grafana is written in TypeScript and dd-trace-java 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, Grafana or dd-trace-java?
Choose Grafana if you want the larger community (77,638 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose dd-trace-java if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.