head to head · open source
Vector vs telemetry
Vector has 22,793 GitHub stars, 2,371 forks, 2,512 open issues and last shipped today. telemetry has 923 stars, 76 forks, 6 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. Vector leads on adoption by 2,369% (22,793 vs 923 stars). Vector is written in Rust under MPL-2.0; telemetry is written in Erlang under Apache-2.0. Vector has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, telemetry 8%. Vector was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (events, 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
| Vector | telemetry | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 23K | ★ 923 |
| License | MPL-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Rust | Erlang |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-09-30 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 76 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Vector if
- You weight community size — 23K stars and counting
- You want the MPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick telemetry if
- You want the telemetry feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Erlang
- You evaluated both and telemetry fits your workflow better
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 →
About telemetry
Telemetry Documentation Telemetry is a lightweight library for dynamic dispatching of events, with a focus on metrics and instrumentation. Any Erlang or Elixir library can use telemetry to emit events. Application code and other libraries can then hook into those events and run custom handlers. Note: this library is agnostic to tooling and therefore is not directly related to OpenTelemetry. For OpenTelemetry in the Erlang VM, see opentelemetry erlang, and check opentelemetry telemetry to connect both libraries. Usage In a nutshell, you register a custom module and function to be invoked for certain events, which…
read the full telemetry overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Vector or telemetry more popular?
Vector has 22,793 GitHub stars and telemetry has 923. Vector has the larger community by that measure.
Are Vector and telemetry free?
Both are open source. Vector is licensed under MPL-2.0 and telemetry under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Vector and telemetry?
Vector is written in Rust and telemetry in Erlang. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Vector or telemetry?
Choose Vector if you want the larger community (22,793 stars) or its MPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose telemetry if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.