head to head · open source
zipkin vs OpenReplay
zipkin has 17,461 GitHub stars, 3,098 forks, 175 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. OpenReplay has 12,880 stars, 844 forks, 180 open issues and last shipped yesterday. zipkin leads on adoption by 36% (17,461 vs 12,880 stars). zipkin is written in Java under Apache-2.0; OpenReplay is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence. zipkin has attracted 18% as many forks as stars, OpenReplay 7%. OpenReplay 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 | OpenReplay | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 17K | ★ 13K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | Java | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-08-06 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.1K | ⑂ 844 |
| 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 OpenReplay if
- You want the OpenReplay feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and OpenReplay 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 OpenReplay
OpenReplay is open source session replay suite. It lives in JavaScript web app monitoring and observability ecosystem. It supports session replay, cobrowsing, product analytics. TypeScript project. GitHub category is Infrastructure & Operations / Monitoring & Observability. Topics include analytics, angular, devtools, feature flags, ios, javascript, nextjs, product analytics, react, react native, real user monitoring, session replay.
read the full OpenReplay overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is zipkin or OpenReplay more popular?
zipkin has 17,461 GitHub stars and OpenReplay has 12,880. zipkin has the larger community by that measure.
Are zipkin and OpenReplay free?
Both are open source. zipkin is licensed under Apache-2.0, and OpenReplay has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between zipkin and OpenReplay?
zipkin is written in Java and OpenReplay in TypeScript. 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 OpenReplay?
Choose zipkin if you want the larger community (17,461 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose OpenReplay if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.