head to head · open source
jaeger vs openmessaging-java
jaeger has 23,223 GitHub stars, 3,122 forks, 547 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. openmessaging-java has 723 stars, 219 forks, 13 open issues and last shipped 8 months ago. jaeger leads on adoption by 3,112% (23,223 vs 723 stars). jaeger is written in Go under Apache-2.0; openmessaging-java is written in Java under Apache-2.0. jaeger has attracted 13% as many forks as stars, openmessaging-java 30%. jaeger was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| jaeger | openmessaging-java | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 23K | ★ 723 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-01-26 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.1K | ⑂ 219 |
| 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 openmessaging-java if
- You want the openmessaging-java feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and openmessaging-java 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 openmessaging-java
OpenMessaging for Java is the vendor neutral Java runtime interface for distributed messaging and streaming, published as the io.openmessaging:openmessaging api artifact on Maven Central, and it is aimed at developers and platform teams who need messaging applications to run across heterogeneous brokers and operating systems instead of one vendor's proprietary client API.
read the full openmessaging-java overview →
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 openmessaging-java more popular?
jaeger has 23,223 GitHub stars and openmessaging-java has 723. jaeger has the larger community by that measure.
Are jaeger and openmessaging-java free?
Both are open source. jaeger is licensed under Apache-2.0 and openmessaging-java under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between jaeger and openmessaging-java?
jaeger is written in Go and openmessaging-java in Java. 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 openmessaging-java?
Choose jaeger if you want the larger community (23,223 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose openmessaging-java if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.