head to head · open source
zipkin vs Keep
zipkin has 17,476 GitHub stars, 3,092 forks, 175 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. Keep has 12,474 stars, 1,542 forks, 609 open issues and last shipped yesterday. zipkin leads on adoption by 40% (17,476 vs 12,474 stars). zipkin is written in Java under Apache-2.0; Keep is written in Python under a custom or non-standard licence. zipkin has attracted 18% as many forks as stars, Keep 12%. Keep 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 | Keep | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 17K | ★ 12K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | Java | Python |
| Last push | 2026-08-06 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.1K | ⑂ 1.5K |
| 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 Keep if
- You want the Keep feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and Keep 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 Keep
The open source AIOps and alert management platform Single pane of glass, alert deduplication, enrichment, filtering and correlation, bi directional integrations, workflows, dashboards. Docs · Try it out · Report Bug · Book a Demo · Website 🔍 Single pane of glass Best in class customizable UI for all your alerts and incidents 🛠️ Swiss Army Knife for alerts Deduplication, correlation, filtering and enrichment 🔄 Deep integrations Bi directional syncs with monitoring tools, customizable workflows ⚡ Automation GitHub Actions for your monitoring tools 🤖 AIOps 2.0 AI powered correlation and summarization See full…
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Frequently asked questions
Is zipkin or Keep more popular?
zipkin has 17,476 GitHub stars and Keep has 12,474. zipkin has the larger community by that measure.
Are zipkin and Keep free?
Both are open source. zipkin is licensed under Apache-2.0, and Keep has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between zipkin and Keep?
zipkin is written in Java and Keep in Python. 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 Keep?
Choose zipkin if you want the larger community (17,476 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Keep if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.