head to head · open source
jaeger vs telegraf
jaeger has 23,366 GitHub stars, 3,220 forks, 547 open issues and last shipped yesterday. telegraf has 17,893 stars, 5,846 forks, 449 open issues and last shipped yesterday. jaeger leads on adoption by 31% (23,366 vs 17,893 stars). jaeger is written in Go under Apache-2.0; telegraf is written in Go under MIT. jaeger has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, telegraf 33%. jaeger was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (hacktoberfest), 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
| jaeger | telegraf | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 23K | ★ 18K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.2K | ⑂ 5.8K |
| 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 telegraf if
- You want the telegraf feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and telegraf 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 telegraf
Telegraf Telegraf is an agent for collecting, processing, aggregating, and writing metrics, logs, and other arbitrary data. Offers a comprehensive suite of over 300 plugins, covering a wide range of functionalities including system monitoring, cloud services, and message passing Enables the integration of user defined code to collect, transform, and transmit data efficiently Compiles into a standalone static binary without any external dependencies, ensuring a streamlined deployment process Utilizes TOML for configuration, providing a user friendly and unambiguous setup experience Developed with contributions…
read the full telegraf overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is jaeger or telegraf more popular?
jaeger has 23,366 GitHub stars and telegraf has 17,893. jaeger has the larger community by that measure.
Are jaeger and telegraf free?
Both are open source. jaeger is licensed under Apache-2.0 and telegraf under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between jaeger and telegraf?
jaeger is written in Go and telegraf in Go. 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 telegraf?
Choose jaeger if you want the larger community (23,366 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose telegraf if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.