head to head · open source
OpenObserve vs dd-trace-java
OpenObserve has 22,027 GitHub stars, 1,098 forks, 598 open issues and last shipped today. dd-trace-java has 737 stars, 361 forks, 478 open issues and last shipped today. OpenObserve leads on adoption by 2,889% (22,027 vs 737 stars). OpenObserve is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; dd-trace-java is written in Java under Apache-2.0. OpenObserve has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, dd-trace-java 49%. dd-trace-java was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (apm, datadog), 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
| OpenObserve | dd-trace-java | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 22K | ★ 737 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-09-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.1K | ⑂ 361 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick OpenObserve if
- You weight community size — 22K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick dd-trace-java if
- You want the dd-trace-java 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 dd-trace-java fits your workflow better
About OpenObserve
OpenObserve is an open source observability platform for logs, metrics, traces, analytics, Real User Monitoring, session replay, pipelines, SLO, and LLM observability. It lives in the cloud native infrastructure ecosystem and is described as an alternative to Datadog, Splunk, and Elasticsearch. The project is built in Rust, ships as a single binary, and uses Parquet columnar storage with an S3 native design.
read the full OpenObserve overview →
About dd-trace-java
dd trace java is Datadog's open source APM client library for Java, and it is aimed at Java teams that need distributed tracing and continuous profiling from a single JVM agent rather than from hand written instrumentation in every service.
read the full dd-trace-java overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is OpenObserve or dd-trace-java more popular?
OpenObserve has 22,027 GitHub stars and dd-trace-java has 737. OpenObserve has the larger community by that measure.
Are OpenObserve and dd-trace-java free?
Both are open source. OpenObserve is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and dd-trace-java under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between OpenObserve and dd-trace-java?
OpenObserve is written in TypeScript and dd-trace-java 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, OpenObserve or dd-trace-java?
Choose OpenObserve if you want the larger community (22,027 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose dd-trace-java if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.