head to head · open source
jaeger vs tapir
jaeger has 23,368 GitHub stars, 3,222 forks, 547 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. tapir has 1,476 stars, 473 forks, 173 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. jaeger leads on adoption by 1,483% (23,368 vs 1,476 stars). jaeger is written in Go under Apache-2.0; tapir is written in Scala under Apache-2.0. jaeger has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, tapir 32%. 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 | tapir | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 23K | ★ 1.5K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Scala |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.2K | ⑂ 473 |
| 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 tapir if
- You want the tapir feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Scala
- You evaluated both and tapir 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 tapir
Welcome! Intro Tapir is a library to describe HTTP APIs, expose them as a server, consume as a client, and automatically document using open standards. Tapir is fast and developer friendly. The endpoint definition APIs are crafted with readability and discoverability in mind. Our Netty based server is one of the best performing Scala HTTP servers available. Tapir integrates with all major Scala stacks, so you can use your favorite approach to Functional Programming, while leveraging all the benefits that Tapir brings! Seamless integration with the Scala and HTTP ecosystems is one of Tapir's major strengths: all…
read the full tapir overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is jaeger or tapir more popular?
jaeger has 23,368 GitHub stars and tapir has 1,476. jaeger has the larger community by that measure.
Are jaeger and tapir free?
Both are open source. jaeger is licensed under Apache-2.0 and tapir under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between jaeger and tapir?
jaeger is written in Go and tapir in Scala. 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 tapir?
Choose jaeger if you want the larger community (23,368 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose tapir if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.