head to head · open source
jaeger vs transmittable-thread-local
jaeger has 23,368 GitHub stars, 3,222 forks, 547 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. transmittable-thread-local has 8,305 stars, 1,721 forks, 57 open issues and last shipped 5 months ago. jaeger leads on adoption by 181% (23,368 vs 8,305 stars). jaeger is written in Go under Apache-2.0; transmittable-thread-local is written in Java under Apache-2.0. jaeger has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, transmittable-thread-local 21%. jaeger was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (distributed-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 | transmittable-thread-local | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 23K | ★ 8.3K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Java |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-06-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.2K | ⑂ 1.7K |
| 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 transmittable-thread-local if
- You want the transmittable-thread-local 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 transmittable-thread-local 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 transmittable-thread-local
[!IMPORTANT] 🚧 这个分支是 TransmittableThreadLocal(TTL) v3 ，在开发中还没有发布。 v3 的版本说明、工作项列表及其进展，参见 issue 432。 👉 目前使用中的稳定发布版本 v2.x 在 分支 2.x 上。 📖 English Documentation 📖 中文文档 🔧 功能 🎨 需求场景 👥 User Guide 1. 简单使用 2. 保证线程池中传递值 2.1 修饰 Runnable 和 Callable 整个过程的完整时序图 2.2 修饰线程池 2.3 使用 Java Agent 来修饰 JDK 线程池实现类 Java Agent 的启动参数配置 🔌 Java API Docs 🍪 Maven依赖 🔨 关于编译构建 ❓ FAQ ✨ 使用 TTL 的好处与必要性 🗿 更多文档 📚 相关资料 JDK Core Classes 💗 Who Used 👷 Contributors 🔧 功能 👉 TransmittableThreadLocal ( TTL )：在使用线程池等会池化复用线程的执行组件情况下，提供 ThreadLocal 值的传递功能，解决异步执行时上下文传递的问题。一个 Java 标准库本应为框架/中间件设施开发提供的标配能力，本库功能聚焦 & 0依赖，支持 Java 6 21 。 JDK 的…
read the full transmittable-thread-local overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is jaeger or transmittable-thread-local more popular?
jaeger has 23,368 GitHub stars and transmittable-thread-local has 8,305. jaeger has the larger community by that measure.
Are jaeger and transmittable-thread-local free?
Both are open source. jaeger is licensed under Apache-2.0 and transmittable-thread-local under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between jaeger and transmittable-thread-local?
jaeger is written in Go and transmittable-thread-local 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 transmittable-thread-local?
Choose jaeger if you want the larger community (23,368 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose transmittable-thread-local if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.