head to head · open source
zipkin vs GoModel
zipkin has 17,475 GitHub stars, 3,092 forks, 175 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. GoModel has 1,300 stars, 126 forks, 80 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. zipkin leads on adoption by 1,244% (17,475 vs 1,300 stars). zipkin is written in Java under Apache-2.0; GoModel is written in Go under MIT. zipkin has attracted 18% as many forks as stars, GoModel 10%. GoModel 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.
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Side by side
| zipkin | GoModel | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 17K | ★ 1.3K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Java | Go |
| Last push | 2026-08-06 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.1K | ⑂ 126 |
| 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 GoModel if
- You want the GoModel feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and GoModel 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 GoModel
GoModel The last AI gateway you will ever need GoModel is the fastest and the most resource efficient AI Gateway ( the self reproducible benchmarks ). It's an alternative to LiteLLM (which was hacked recently) and Portkey (which is no longer maintained on GitHub). (click on the animation ↑ to see the live demo) GoModel saves you money and nerves. Money because you can remember the responses on this layer (caching), track your spending and do tricks like prompt compression and intelligent routing. Nerves because we strive to achieve good quality and reliability. Our ambition is to be the last AI gateway you will…
read the full GoModel overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is zipkin or GoModel more popular?
zipkin has 17,475 GitHub stars and GoModel has 1,300. zipkin has the larger community by that measure.
Are zipkin and GoModel free?
Both are open source. zipkin is licensed under Apache-2.0 and GoModel under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between zipkin and GoModel?
zipkin is written in Java and GoModel 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 GoModel?
Choose zipkin if you want the larger community (17,475 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose GoModel if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.