head to head · open source
SigNoz vs dd-trace-java
SigNoz has 32,146 GitHub stars, 2,497 forks, 1,557 open issues and last shipped today. dd-trace-java has 737 stars, 361 forks, 478 open issues and last shipped today. SigNoz leads on adoption by 4,262% (32,146 vs 737 stars). SigNoz is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; dd-trace-java is written in Java under Apache-2.0. SigNoz has attracted 8% 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, 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
| SigNoz | dd-trace-java | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 32K | ★ 737 |
| License | Custom / other | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-09-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.5K | ⑂ 361 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick SigNoz if
- You weight community size — 32K 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 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 SigNoz
SigNoz is an open source, OpenTelemetry native observability platform for cloud native applications. It unifies logs, metrics, traces, alerts, and dashboards into a single tool, replacing fragmented monitoring stacks with a correlated signal pipeline. It lives in the observability ecosystem alongside tools like Prometheus, Jaeger, and Grafana, and is positioned as an open alternative to Datadog.
read the full SigNoz 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 SigNoz or dd-trace-java more popular?
SigNoz has 32,146 GitHub stars and dd-trace-java has 737. SigNoz has the larger community by that measure.
Are SigNoz and dd-trace-java free?
Both are open source. SigNoz has no licence declared in this registry, and dd-trace-java is licensed under Apache-2.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between SigNoz and dd-trace-java?
SigNoz 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, SigNoz or dd-trace-java?
Choose SigNoz if you want the larger community (32,146 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose dd-trace-java if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.