head to head · open source
zipkin vs effect
zipkin has 17,464 GitHub stars, 3,098 forks, 175 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. effect has 16,138 stars, 752 forks, 253 open issues and last shipped today. zipkin leads on adoption by 8% (17,464 vs 16,138 stars). zipkin is written in Java under Apache-2.0; effect is written in TypeScript under MIT. zipkin has attracted 18% as many forks as stars, effect 5%. effect was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (observability), 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| zipkin | effect | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 17K | ★ 16K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Java | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-08-06 | 2026-09-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.1K | ⑂ 752 |
| 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 effect if
- You want the effect feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and effect 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 effect
Effect is a TypeScript library for building robust, maintainable, type safe, and production grade applications. It lives in the TypeScript and JavaScript ecosystem, distributed as the core effect package alongside a monorepo of integration packages that extend it. The project is MIT licensed, has been developed for roughly seven years, and currently ships Effect V4 as a release candidate, with the main branch holding v4 development and the v3 branch retaining the previous line.
read the full effect overview →
More in Infrastructure & Operations
Related comparisons
More Monitoring & Observability projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Monitoring & Observability field.
Frequently asked questions
Is zipkin or effect more popular?
zipkin has 17,464 GitHub stars and effect has 16,138. zipkin has the larger community by that measure.
Are zipkin and effect free?
Both are open source. zipkin is licensed under Apache-2.0 and effect under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between zipkin and effect?
zipkin is written in Java and effect in TypeScript. 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 effect?
Choose zipkin if you want the larger community (17,464 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose effect if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.