head to head · open source
jaeger vs elastdocker
jaeger has 23,223 GitHub stars, 3,122 forks, 547 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. elastdocker has 2,066 stars, 338 forks, 4 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. jaeger leads on adoption by 1,024% (23,223 vs 2,066 stars). jaeger is written in Go under Apache-2.0; elastdocker is written in Dockerfile under MIT. jaeger has attracted 13% as many forks as stars, elastdocker 16%. jaeger was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (observability), 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 | elastdocker | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 23K | ★ 2.1K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Dockerfile |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-07-12 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.1K | ⑂ 338 |
| 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 elastdocker if
- You want the elastdocker feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Dockerfile
- You evaluated both and elastdocker 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 elastdocker
elastdocker is a Docker Compose composition that runs the Elastic Stack (ELK) version 9.4.2 — Elasticsearch, Kibana, Logstash, Beats, and the supporting components — preconfigured with security, self monitoring, and tooling for logging, metrics, APM, alerting, machine learning, and SIEM, aimed at developers and small teams who want the full stack running with a single command instead of wiring it together by hand.
read the full elastdocker overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is jaeger or elastdocker more popular?
jaeger has 23,223 GitHub stars and elastdocker has 2,066. jaeger has the larger community by that measure.
Are jaeger and elastdocker free?
Both are open source. jaeger is licensed under Apache-2.0 and elastdocker under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between jaeger and elastdocker?
jaeger is written in Go and elastdocker in Dockerfile. 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 elastdocker?
Choose jaeger if you want the larger community (23,223 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose elastdocker if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.