head to head · open source
zipkin vs dozzle
zipkin has 17,476 GitHub stars, 3,092 forks, 175 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. dozzle has 14,786 stars, 651 forks, 6 open issues and last shipped yesterday. zipkin leads on adoption by 18% (17,476 vs 14,786 stars). zipkin is written in Java under Apache-2.0; dozzle is written in Go under MIT. zipkin has attracted 18% as many forks as stars, dozzle 4%. dozzle 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 | dozzle | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 17K | ★ 15K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Java | Go |
| Last push | 2026-08-06 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.1K | ⑂ 651 |
| 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 dozzle if
- You want the dozzle feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and dozzle fits your workflow better
About zipkin
zipkin Zipkin is a distributed tracing system. It helps gather timing data needed to troubleshoot latency problems in service architectures. Features include both the collection and lookup of this data. If you have a trace ID in a log file, you can jump directly to it. Otherwise, you can query based on attributes such as service, operation name, tags and duration. Some interesting data will be summarized for you, such as the percentage of time spent in a service, and whether operations failed. The Zipkin UI also presents a dependency diagram showing how many traced requests went through each application. This…
read the full zipkin overview →
About dozzle
Dozzle dozzle.dev Dozzle is a lightweight, web based application for monitoring Docker logs in real time. It doesn't store any log files—it's designed purely for live log viewing. [!NOTE] If you like Dozzle, check out dtop , a top like application for monitoring Docker containers. It integrates with Dozzle to link directly to container logs. Features Intelligent fuzzy search for container names Search logs using regex Search logs using SQL queries Small memory footprint Split screen for viewing multiple logs Live stats with memory and CPU usage Multi user authentication with support for forward proxy…
read the full dozzle overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is zipkin or dozzle more popular?
zipkin has 17,476 GitHub stars and dozzle has 14,786. zipkin has the larger community by that measure.
Are zipkin and dozzle free?
Both are open source. zipkin is licensed under Apache-2.0 and dozzle under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between zipkin and dozzle?
zipkin is written in Java and dozzle 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, zipkin or dozzle?
Choose zipkin if you want the larger community (17,476 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose dozzle if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.