head to head · open source
SigNoz vs btrace
SigNoz has 32,528 GitHub stars, 2,575 forks, 1,557 open issues and last shipped yesterday. btrace has 5,997 stars, 953 forks, 6 open issues and last shipped yesterday. SigNoz leads on adoption by 442% (32,528 vs 5,997 stars). SigNoz is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; btrace is written in Java under Apache-2.0. SigNoz has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, btrace 16%. btrace 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
| SigNoz | btrace | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 33K | ★ 6.0K |
| License | Custom / other | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Java |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-11-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.6K | ⑂ 953 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick SigNoz if
- You weight community size — 33K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick btrace if
- You want the btrace 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 btrace fits your workflow better
About SigNoz
中文 · Deutsch · Português SigNoz is an open source observability platform built on OpenTelemetry. We’re building an enterprise grade alternative to fragmented monitoring stacks, with logs, metrics, traces, alerts, and dashboards in one place. Choose how to run SigNoz SigNoz Cloud (Recommended) Fully managed SigNoz with a 30 day free trial, no credit card required, usage based pricing that starts at $49, and regional data hosting. Start free → Enterprise Enterprise Cloud, BYOC, or Enterprise Self Hosted with compliance, support, custom retention, RBAC, ingestion controls, data residency, and region selection…
read the full SigNoz overview →
About btrace
BTrace Safe, dynamic tracing for Java applications BTrace dynamically instruments running Java applications to inject tracing code at runtime. No restarts. No recompilation. Production safe. Quick links: Quick Reference · Step by Step Tutorial Why BTrace? Zero downtime Attach to running JVMs without restart Production safe Verified scripts can't crash your application Flexible probes Method entry/exit, timings, field access, allocations Low overhead Bytecode injection with minimal performance impact Supported Java Versions BTrace 3.0 runs on Java 8–25+. Running BTrace against a JVM older than Java 17 is…
read the full btrace overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is SigNoz or btrace more popular?
SigNoz has 32,528 GitHub stars and btrace has 5,997. SigNoz has the larger community by that measure.
Are SigNoz and btrace free?
Both are open source. SigNoz has no licence declared in this registry, and btrace is licensed under Apache-2.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between SigNoz and btrace?
SigNoz is written in TypeScript and btrace 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, SigNoz or btrace?
Choose SigNoz if you want the larger community (32,528 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose btrace if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.