head to head · open source
jaeger vs Vector
jaeger has 23,366 GitHub stars, 3,220 forks, 547 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Vector has 22,785 stars, 2,369 forks, 2,512 open issues and last shipped yesterday. jaeger leads on adoption by 3% (23,366 vs 22,785 stars). jaeger is written in Go under Apache-2.0; Vector is written in Rust under MPL-2.0. jaeger has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, Vector 10%. Vector 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 | Vector | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 23K | ★ 23K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MPL-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.2K | ⑂ 2.4K |
| 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 Vector if
- You want the Vector feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and Vector 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 Vector
Quickstart • Docs • Guides • Integrations • Chat • Download • Container Images • Rust Crate Docs What is Vector? Vector is a high performance, end to end (agent & aggregator) observability data pipeline that puts you in control of your observability data. [Collect][docs.sources], [transform][docs.transforms], and [route][docs.sinks] all your logs and metrics to any vendors you want today and any other vendors you may want tomorrow. Vector enables dramatic cost reduction, novel data enrichment, and data security where you need it, not where it is most convenient for your…
read the full Vector overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is jaeger or Vector more popular?
jaeger has 23,366 GitHub stars and Vector has 22,785. jaeger has the larger community by that measure.
Are jaeger and Vector free?
Both are open source. jaeger is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Vector under MPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between jaeger and Vector?
jaeger is written in Go and Vector in Rust. 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 Vector?
Choose jaeger if you want the larger community (23,366 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Vector if its feature set, stack or MPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.