head to head · open source
zipkin vs Logstash
zipkin has 17,476 GitHub stars, 3,092 forks, 175 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. Logstash has 14,972 stars, 3,503 forks, 2,254 open issues and last shipped yesterday. zipkin leads on adoption by 17% (17,476 vs 14,972 stars). zipkin is written in Java under Apache-2.0; Logstash is written in Java under a custom or non-standard licence. zipkin has attracted 18% as many forks as stars, Logstash 23%. Logstash 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 | Logstash | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 17K | ★ 15K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | Java | Java |
| Last push | 2026-08-06 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.1K | ⑂ 3.5K |
| 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 Logstash if
- You want the Logstash feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and Logstash 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 Logstash
Logstash Logstash is part of the Elastic Stack along with Beats, Elasticsearch and Kibana. Logstash is a server side data processing pipeline that ingests data from a multitude of sources simultaneously, transforms it, and then sends it to your favorite "stash." (Ours is Elasticsearch, naturally.). Logstash has over 200 plugins, and you can write your own very easily as well. For more info, see Documentation and Getting Started You can find the documentation and getting started guides for Logstash on the elastic.co site For information about building the documentation, see the README in Downloads You can…
read the full Logstash overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is zipkin or Logstash more popular?
zipkin has 17,476 GitHub stars and Logstash has 14,972. zipkin has the larger community by that measure.
Are zipkin and Logstash free?
Both are open source. zipkin is licensed under Apache-2.0, and Logstash has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between zipkin and Logstash?
zipkin is written in Java and Logstash in Java. 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 Logstash?
Choose zipkin if you want the larger community (17,476 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Logstash if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.