head to head · open source
zipkin vs Logstash
zipkin has 17,461 GitHub stars, 3,098 forks, 175 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. Logstash has 14,944 stars, 3,496 forks, 2,254 open issues and last shipped yesterday. zipkin leads on adoption by 17% (17,461 vs 14,944 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 | 2026-09-17 |
| 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 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 Logstash
Logstash is a server side data processing pipeline that transports and processes logs, events, or other data. It is part of the Elastic Stack with Beats, Elasticsearch, and Kibana, and it sits in the Infrastructure & Operations / Monitoring & Observability category. The project uses Java and JRuby, and its topics describe it as an ETL framework for logging, real time processing, and streaming.
read the full Logstash overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is zipkin or Logstash more popular?
zipkin has 17,461 GitHub stars and Logstash has 14,944. 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 (17,461 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.