head to head · open source
zipkin vs superlog
zipkin has 17,475 GitHub stars, 3,092 forks, 175 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. superlog has 1,475 stars, 117 forks, 83 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. zipkin leads on adoption by 1,085% (17,475 vs 1,475 stars). zipkin is written in Java under Apache-2.0; superlog is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. zipkin has attracted 18% as many forks as stars, superlog 8%. superlog 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 | superlog | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 17K | ★ 1.5K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Java | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-08-06 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.1K | ⑂ 117 |
| 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 superlog if
- You want the superlog feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and superlog 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 superlog
Website · Code · Skills · Helpers · Discord About Superlog is an open source agentic telemetry system. It ingests traces, logs, and metrics, groups noisy signals into incidents, and watches your infra while you sleep. Installation You can install Superlog in your project by using our skills in your favourite coding agent: What is Superlog? Superlog is an open core observability workspace for OpenTelemetry data. It ingests traces, logs, and metrics, groups noisy signals into incidents, and gives teams a local first product surface for debugging production systems. This repository contains the fully open source…
read the full superlog overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is zipkin or superlog more popular?
zipkin has 17,475 GitHub stars and superlog has 1,475. zipkin has the larger community by that measure.
Are zipkin and superlog free?
Both are open source. zipkin is licensed under Apache-2.0 and superlog under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between zipkin and superlog?
zipkin is written in Java and superlog 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 superlog?
Choose zipkin if you want the larger community (17,475 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose superlog if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.