head to head · open source
zipkin vs openGemini
zipkin has 17,475 GitHub stars, 3,092 forks, 175 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. openGemini has 1,178 stars, 176 forks, 117 open issues and last shipped yesterday. zipkin leads on adoption by 1,383% (17,475 vs 1,178 stars). zipkin is written in Java under Apache-2.0; openGemini is written in Go under Apache-2.0. zipkin has attracted 18% as many forks as stars, openGemini 15%. openGemini 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 | openGemini | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 17K | ★ 1.2K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Java | Go |
| Last push | 2026-08-06 | 2026-11-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.1K | ⑂ 176 |
| 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 openGemini if
- You want the openGemini feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and openGemini 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 openGemini
README English 简体中文 Official Website Docs Contribution Guide RoadMap Performance About openGemini openGemini is a cloud native distributed time series database, focusing on the storage and analysis of massive telemetry data. If you have used openGemini, please let us know and click submit Usage Information openGemini is an sandbox project of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF). Please consider joining the CNCF if you are an organization that wants to take an active role in supporting the growth and evolution of the cloud native ecosystem. Why openGemini Compared with other time series database…
read the full openGemini overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is zipkin or openGemini more popular?
zipkin has 17,475 GitHub stars and openGemini has 1,178. zipkin has the larger community by that measure.
Are zipkin and openGemini free?
Both are open source. zipkin is licensed under Apache-2.0 and openGemini under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between zipkin and openGemini?
zipkin is written in Java and openGemini 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 openGemini?
Choose zipkin if you want the larger community (17,475 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose openGemini if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.