head to head · open source
zipkin vs Cachet
zipkin has 17,461 GitHub stars, 3,098 forks, 175 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. Cachet has 15,242 stars, 1,632 forks, 7 open issues and last shipped yesterday. zipkin leads on adoption by 15% (17,461 vs 15,242 stars). zipkin is written in Java under Apache-2.0; Cachet is written in PHP under a custom or non-standard licence. zipkin has attracted 18% as many forks as stars, Cachet 11%. Cachet was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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
| zipkin | Cachet | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 17K | ★ 15K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | Java | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-08-06 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.1K | ⑂ 1.6K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick zipkin if
- You weight community size — 17K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Cachet if
- You want the Cachet feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and Cachet fits your workflow better
About zipkin
Zipkin is a distributed tracing system maintained under the OpenZipkin organization and written in Java, released under the Apache 2.0 license. It lives in the Java and JVM ecosystem as a standalone server, while its instrumentation libraries span many languages. The project gathers the timing data needed to troubleshoot latency problems in service architectures, and it covers both the collection and the lookup of that data.
read the full zipkin overview →
About Cachet
Cachet is an open source, self hosted status page system. It lives in the PHP and Laravel ecosystem, and it is categorized under Infrastructure and Operations and Monitoring and Observability. The project is intended for teams that need a dedicated place to communicate service status and downtime in a transparent way.
read the full Cachet overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is zipkin or Cachet more popular?
zipkin has 17,461 GitHub stars and Cachet has 15,242. zipkin has the larger community by that measure.
Are zipkin and Cachet free?
Both are open source. zipkin is licensed under Apache-2.0, and Cachet has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between zipkin and Cachet?
zipkin is written in Java and Cachet in PHP. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, zipkin or Cachet?
Choose zipkin if you want the larger community (17,461 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Cachet if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.