head to head · open source
jaeger vs mulog
jaeger has 23,368 GitHub stars, 3,222 forks, 547 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. mulog has 540 stars, 50 forks, 12 open issues and last shipped 4 months ago. jaeger leads on adoption by 4,227% (23,368 vs 540 stars). jaeger is written in Go under Apache-2.0; mulog is written in Clojure under Apache-2.0. jaeger has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, mulog 9%. jaeger was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (observability, 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 | mulog | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 23K | ★ 540 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Clojure |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-06-27 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.2K | ⑂ 50 |
| 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 mulog if
- You want the mulog feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Clojure
- You evaluated both and mulog 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 mulog
μ/log μ/log (Pronounced: /mjuːlog/) is a micro logging library that logs events and data, not words! From the Greek letter μ , mu (Pronunciation: /mjuː/) The twelfth letter of the Greek alphabet (Μ, μ), often used as a prefix for micro which is 10 6 in the SI (System of Units). Lowercase letter " u " is often substituted for " μ " when the Greek character is not typographically available. (source: Features Here some features and key design decisions that make μ/log special: Effortlessly, logs events as data points. No need to construct strings that then need to be deconstructed later. Fast, extremely fast, under…
read the full mulog overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is jaeger or mulog more popular?
jaeger has 23,368 GitHub stars and mulog has 540. jaeger has the larger community by that measure.
Are jaeger and mulog free?
Both are open source. jaeger is licensed under Apache-2.0 and mulog under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between jaeger and mulog?
jaeger is written in Go and mulog in Clojure. 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 mulog?
Choose jaeger if you want the larger community (23,368 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose mulog if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.