head to head · open source
zipkin vs voltagent
zipkin has 17,475 GitHub stars, 3,092 forks, 175 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. voltagent has 10,917 stars, 1,186 forks, 86 open issues and last shipped 21 days ago. zipkin leads on adoption by 60% (17,475 vs 10,917 stars). zipkin is written in Java under Apache-2.0; voltagent is written in TypeScript under MIT. zipkin has attracted 18% as many forks as stars, voltagent 11%. voltagent 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 | voltagent | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 17K | ★ 11K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Java | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-08-06 | 2026-10-15 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.1K | ⑂ 1.2K |
| 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 voltagent if
- You want the voltagent feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and voltagent 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 voltagent
AI Agent Engineering Platform English 繁體中文 简体中文 日本語 한국어 Home Page Documentation Examples VoltAgent is an end to end AI Agent Engineering Platform that consists of two main parts: Open Source TypeScript Framework – Memory, RAG, Guardrails, Tools, MCP, Voice, Workflow, and more. VoltOps Console Cloud Self Hosted – Observability, Automation, Deployment, Evals, Guardrails, Prompts, and more. Build agents with full code control and ship them with production ready visibility and operations. Core TypeScript Framework With the open source framework, you can build intelligent agents with memory, tools, and multi step…
read the full voltagent overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is zipkin or voltagent more popular?
zipkin has 17,475 GitHub stars and voltagent has 10,917. zipkin has the larger community by that measure.
Are zipkin and voltagent free?
Both are open source. zipkin is licensed under Apache-2.0 and voltagent under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between zipkin and voltagent?
zipkin is written in Java and voltagent 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 voltagent?
Choose zipkin if you want the larger community (17,475 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose voltagent if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.