head to head · open source
cilium vs Logfire
cilium has 25,360 GitHub stars, 4,082 forks, 1,085 open issues and last shipped today. Logfire has 4,480 stars, 289 forks, 191 open issues and last shipped today. cilium leads on adoption by 466% (25,360 vs 4,480 stars). cilium is written in Go under Apache-2.0; Logfire is written in Python under MIT. cilium has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, Logfire 6%. cilium was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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
| cilium | Logfire | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 25K | ★ 4.5K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-09-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.1K | ⑂ 289 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick cilium if
- You weight community size — 25K 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 Logfire if
- You want the Logfire feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and Logfire fits your workflow better
About cilium
Cilium is a networking, observability, and security solution built on an eBPF based dataplane, written in Go and licensed under Apache 2.0. It lives in the Kubernetes ecosystem as a CNI implementation, and it is a CNCF project. At its foundation is eBPF, a Linux kernel technology that allows dynamic insertion of bytecode at integration points such as network IO, application sockets, and tracepoints, which is where Cilium implements its networking, security, and visibility logic. The project provides a flat Layer 3 network that can span multiple clusters in either native routing or overlay mode, and it is L7 proto…
read the full cilium overview →
About Logfire
Pydantic Logfire is an observability platform for Python applications, with a focus on AI systems, LLM apps, and agents. The project lives in the Python and OpenTelemetry ecosystem. The repository contains the MIT licensed Python SDK and documentation, while the server application for recording and displaying data is closed source.
read the full Logfire overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is cilium or Logfire more popular?
cilium has 25,360 GitHub stars and Logfire has 4,480. cilium has the larger community by that measure.
Are cilium and Logfire free?
Both are open source. cilium is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Logfire under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between cilium and Logfire?
cilium is written in Go and Logfire in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, cilium or Logfire?
Choose cilium if you want the larger community (25,360 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Logfire if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.