head to head · open source
zipkin vs odd-platform
zipkin has 17,464 GitHub stars, 3,098 forks, 175 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. odd-platform has 1,429 stars, 147 forks, 135 open issues and last shipped today. zipkin leads on adoption by 1,122% (17,464 vs 1,429 stars). zipkin is written in Java under Apache-2.0; odd-platform is written in Java under Apache-2.0. zipkin has attracted 18% as many forks as stars, odd-platform 10%. odd-platform 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 | odd-platform | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 17K | ★ 1.4K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Java | Java |
| Last push | 2026-08-06 | 2026-09-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.1K | ⑂ 147 |
| 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 odd-platform if
- You want the odd-platform feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and odd-platform 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 odd-platform
ODD Platform (Open Data Discovery) is an Apache 2.0, Java based, open source data discovery and observability platform for data teams that need one place to catalogue, trace, monitor and govern the data moving through their pipelines.
read the full odd-platform overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is zipkin or odd-platform more popular?
zipkin has 17,464 GitHub stars and odd-platform has 1,429. zipkin has the larger community by that measure.
Are zipkin and odd-platform free?
Both are open source. zipkin is licensed under Apache-2.0 and odd-platform under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between zipkin and odd-platform?
zipkin is written in Java and odd-platform 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 odd-platform?
Choose zipkin if you want the larger community (17,464 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose odd-platform if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.