head to head · open source
jaeger vs qtap
jaeger has 23,375 GitHub stars, 3,223 forks, 547 open issues and last shipped yesterday. qtap has 1,465 stars, 57 forks, 8 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. jaeger leads on adoption by 1,496% (23,375 vs 1,465 stars). jaeger is written in Go under Apache-2.0; qtap is written in C under Apache-2.0. jaeger has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, qtap 4%. 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 | qtap | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 23K | ★ 1.5K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | C |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.2K | ⑂ 57 |
| 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 qtap if
- You want the qtap feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You evaluated both and qtap 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 qtap
An eBPF agent that captures traffic flowing through the Linux kernel. By attaching to TLS/SSL functions, data is intercepted before and after encryption and then passed to flexible plugins with full visibility along with all of the available context process/container/host/user/protocol/etc. Qtap makes it possible to understand what's happening with your egress traffic, without modifying apps, installing proxies, or managing certs. Qtap shows you exactly what data is being sent and received in its original, unencrypted form while operating out of band with minimal overhead, without adding latency or disrupting…
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Frequently asked questions
Is jaeger or qtap more popular?
jaeger has 23,375 GitHub stars and qtap has 1,465. jaeger has the larger community by that measure.
Are jaeger and qtap free?
Both are open source. jaeger is licensed under Apache-2.0 and qtap under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between jaeger and qtap?
jaeger is written in Go and qtap in C. 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 qtap?
Choose jaeger if you want the larger community (23,375 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose qtap if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.