head to head · open source
SigNoz vs opentelemetry-python
SigNoz has 32,146 GitHub stars, 2,497 forks, 1,557 open issues and last shipped today. opentelemetry-python has 2,636 stars, 1,008 forks, 425 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. SigNoz leads on adoption by 1,119% (32,146 vs 2,636 stars). SigNoz is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; opentelemetry-python is written in Python under Apache-2.0. SigNoz has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, opentelemetry-python 38%. SigNoz was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (distributed-tracing, metrics), 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 | opentelemetry-python | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 32K | ★ 2.6K |
| License | Custom / other | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.5K | ⑂ 1.0K |
| 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 opentelemetry-python if
- You want the opentelemetry-python feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and opentelemetry-python 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 opentelemetry-python
OpenTelemetry Python is the Python implementation of the OpenTelemetry API and SDK, giving Python developers vendor neutral instrumentation for traces, metrics and logs across distributed systems.
read the full opentelemetry-python overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is SigNoz or opentelemetry-python more popular?
SigNoz has 32,146 GitHub stars and opentelemetry-python has 2,636. SigNoz has the larger community by that measure.
Are SigNoz and opentelemetry-python free?
Both are open source. SigNoz has no licence declared in this registry, and opentelemetry-python is licensed under Apache-2.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between SigNoz and opentelemetry-python?
SigNoz is written in TypeScript and opentelemetry-python 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, SigNoz or opentelemetry-python?
Choose SigNoz if you want the larger community (32,146 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose opentelemetry-python if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.