head to head · open source
jaeger vs Checkmate
jaeger has 23,223 GitHub stars, 3,122 forks, 547 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. Checkmate has 10,857 stars, 1,206 forks, 114 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. jaeger leads on adoption by 114% (23,223 vs 10,857 stars). jaeger is written in Go under Apache-2.0; Checkmate is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. jaeger has attracted 13% as many forks as stars, Checkmate 11%. Checkmate was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (hacktoberfest), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
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
| jaeger | Checkmate | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 23K | ★ 11K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.1K | ⑂ 1.2K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick jaeger if
- You weight community size — 23K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Checkmate if
- You want the Checkmate feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Checkmate fits your workflow better
About jaeger
Jaeger is a distributed tracing platform hosted by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), where it graduated as the 7th top level project in October 2019. It was originally created by Uber Technologies and then donated to the CNCF. The project is written in Go and released under the Apache 2.0 license, and it lives in the OpenTelemetry and observability ecosystem: it consumes traces from OpenTelemetry SDKs and reuses components from the OpenTelemetry Collector. Its repository carries topics including cncf, distributed tracing, jaeger, observability, opentelemetry and tracing, and the project is openly gove…
read the full jaeger overview →
About Checkmate
Checkmate is an open source, self hosted monitoring application for infrastructure and observability. It is written in TypeScript and released under the AGPL 3.0 license. The repository contains the frontend and backend, and the project sits in the infrastructure monitoring ecosystem for teams that need to track servers, websites, and hardware status without relying on a hosted only product.
read the full Checkmate overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is jaeger or Checkmate more popular?
jaeger has 23,223 GitHub stars and Checkmate has 10,857. jaeger has the larger community by that measure.
Are jaeger and Checkmate free?
Both are open source. jaeger is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Checkmate under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between jaeger and Checkmate?
jaeger is written in Go and Checkmate in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, jaeger or Checkmate?
Choose jaeger if you want the larger community (23,223 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Checkmate if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.