head to head · open source
jaeger vs gf
jaeger has 23,368 GitHub stars, 3,222 forks, 547 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. gf has 13,295 stars, 1,729 forks, 148 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. jaeger leads on adoption by 76% (23,368 vs 13,295 stars). jaeger is written in Go under Apache-2.0; gf is written in Go under MIT. jaeger has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, gf 13%. jaeger was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (opentelemetry, tracing), 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 | gf | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 23K | ★ 13K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-10-30 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.2K | ⑂ 1.7K |
| 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 gf if
- You want the gf feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and gf fits your workflow better
About jaeger
[![Slack chat][slack img]]( get in touch) [![Unit Tests][ci img]][ci] [![Coverage Status][cov img]][cov] [![Project+Community stats][community badge]][community stats] [![FOSSA Status][fossa img]][fossa] [![OpenSSF Scorecard][openssf img]][openssf] [![OpenSSF Best Practices][openssf bp img]][openssf bp] [![CLOMonitor][clomonitor img]][clomonitor] [![Artifact Hub][artifacthub img]][artifacthub] Jaeger a Distributed Tracing System 💥💥💥 Jaeger v2 is out! Read the blog post and try it out. Quick Start Get Jaeger running in seconds with Docker: For production deployments and more options, see the Getting Started…
read the full jaeger overview →
About gf
English 简体中文 GoFrame is a powerful framework for faster, easier, and more efficient project development. Use it as a full application framework, or pick individual components as needed. Installation GoFrame requires Go 1.23 or later. In an existing module, add the framework: Install the gf CLI: Usage Create main.go : Run it: Open To scaffold a project with the gf CLI: Documentation Official Site: Official Site(en): 国内镜像： Mirror Site: Mirror Site: Offline Docs GoDoc API: Doc Source: Contributors 💖 Thanks to all the contributors who made GoFrame possible 💖 License GoFrame is licensed under the MIT License, 100%…
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Frequently asked questions
Is jaeger or gf more popular?
jaeger has 23,368 GitHub stars and gf has 13,295. jaeger has the larger community by that measure.
Are jaeger and gf free?
Both are open source. jaeger is licensed under Apache-2.0 and gf under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between jaeger and gf?
jaeger is written in Go and gf in Go. 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 gf?
Choose jaeger if you want the larger community (23,368 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose gf if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.