head to head · open source
jaeger vs Logstash
jaeger has 23,366 GitHub stars, 3,220 forks, 547 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Logstash has 14,972 stars, 3,503 forks, 2,254 open issues and last shipped yesterday. jaeger leads on adoption by 56% (23,366 vs 14,972 stars). jaeger is written in Go under Apache-2.0; Logstash is written in Java under a custom or non-standard licence. jaeger has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, Logstash 23%. jaeger 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
| jaeger | Logstash | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 23K | ★ 15K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | Go | Java |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.2K | ⑂ 3.5K |
| 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 Logstash if
- You want the Logstash feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and Logstash 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 Logstash
Logstash Logstash is part of the Elastic Stack along with Beats, Elasticsearch and Kibana. Logstash is a server side data processing pipeline that ingests data from a multitude of sources simultaneously, transforms it, and then sends it to your favorite "stash." (Ours is Elasticsearch, naturally.). Logstash has over 200 plugins, and you can write your own very easily as well. For more info, see Documentation and Getting Started You can find the documentation and getting started guides for Logstash on the elastic.co site For information about building the documentation, see the README in Downloads You can…
read the full Logstash overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is jaeger or Logstash more popular?
jaeger has 23,366 GitHub stars and Logstash has 14,972. jaeger has the larger community by that measure.
Are jaeger and Logstash free?
Both are open source. jaeger is licensed under Apache-2.0, and Logstash has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between jaeger and Logstash?
jaeger is written in Go and Logstash 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 Logstash?
Choose jaeger if you want the larger community (23,366 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Logstash if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.