head to head · open source
zipkin vs qtap
zipkin has 17,464 GitHub stars, 3,098 forks, 175 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. qtap has 1,460 stars, 55 forks, 8 open issues and last shipped 9 days ago. zipkin leads on adoption by 1,096% (17,464 vs 1,460 stars). zipkin is written in Java under Apache-2.0; qtap is written in C under Apache-2.0. zipkin has attracted 18% as many forks as stars, qtap 4%. qtap 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 | qtap | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 17K | ★ 1.5K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Java | C |
| Last push | 2026-08-06 | 2026-09-11 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.1K | ⑂ 55 |
| 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 qtap if
- You want the qtap feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You evaluated both and qtap 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 qtap
Qtap is an Apache 2.0 eBPF agent that intercepts network traffic inside the Linux kernel at the TLS/SSL layer, letting platform engineers, SREs, security auditors, and application developers inspect egress connections and the originating processes without modifying applications, deploying proxies, or managing certificates.
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Frequently asked questions
Is zipkin or qtap more popular?
zipkin has 17,464 GitHub stars and qtap has 1,460. zipkin has the larger community by that measure.
Are zipkin and qtap free?
Both are open source. zipkin is licensed under Apache-2.0 and qtap under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between zipkin and qtap?
zipkin is written in Java and qtap in C. 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 qtap?
Choose zipkin if you want the larger community (17,464 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose qtap if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.