head to head · open source
jaeger vs khi
jaeger has 23,375 GitHub stars, 3,223 forks, 547 open issues and last shipped yesterday. khi has 2,087 stars, 100 forks, 11 open issues and last shipped yesterday. jaeger leads on adoption by 1,020% (23,375 vs 2,087 stars). jaeger is written in Go under Apache-2.0; khi is written in Go under Apache-2.0. jaeger has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, khi 5%. 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| jaeger | khi | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 23K | ★ 2.1K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-11-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.2K | ⑂ 100 |
| 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 khi if
- You want the khi feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and khi 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 khi
Language: English 日本語 Kubernetes History Inspector Kubernetes History Inspector (KHI) is a rich log visualization tool for Kubernetes clusters. KHI transforms vast quantities of logs into an interactive, comprehensive timeline view. This makes it an invaluable tool for troubleshooting complex issues that span multiple components within your Kubernetes clusters. Also, KHI is agentless, allowing anyone to access its features without a complicated process. Timeline view Topology view Timeline view visualizes resource status change timings with timeline charts and manifest diffs from Kubernetes audit logs. Topology…
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 jaeger or khi more popular?
jaeger has 23,375 GitHub stars and khi has 2,087. jaeger has the larger community by that measure.
Are jaeger and khi free?
Both are open source. jaeger is licensed under Apache-2.0 and khi under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between jaeger and khi?
jaeger is written in Go and khi 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 khi?
Choose jaeger if you want the larger community (23,375 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose khi if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.