Open source distributed-tracing projects
Every project in the registry tagged distributed-tracing, ranked by real GitHub adoption.
Open-source observability platform for cloud-native apps
Distributed tracing, metrics, logs, and GenAI monitoring in one
CNCF Jaeger, a Distributed Tracing Platform
Zipkin is a distributed tracing system
APM, (Application Performance Management) tool for large-scale distributed systems.
Lightning-fast search for massive datasets
📌 a missing Java std lib(simple & 0-dependency) for framework/middleware, provide an enhanced InheritableThreadLocal that transmits values between threads even
Full-stack observability without code changes
Open source observability platform for modern applications
Main repository for Datadog Agent
The OpenTelemetry .NET Client
OpenTelemetry JavaScript Client
OpenTelemetry Python API and SDK
Web UI for Jaeger
The OpenTelemetry C++ Client
The Java agent for Apache SkyWalking
Datadog APM client for Java
DataBuff is an AI-native APM built on Opentelemetry，with multi-agent troubleshooting out of the box.
OpenTelemetry Ruby API & SDK, and related gems
Related tags
Frequently asked questions
How many open source distributed-tracing projects are there?
This registry tracks 20 projects tagged distributed-tracing, with 164,853 GitHub stars between them. The most-adopted is SigNoz at 32,501 stars.
Are these distributed-tracing projects free to use?
Yes — 19 of the 20 carry an explicit open-source licence across 3 distinct licences, so there is no licence fee. Where a project also sells a hosted or enterprise version, the self-hosted path remains free.
Which distributed-tracing project should I choose?
The list above is ranked by GitHub stars, but stars measure attention rather than fit. Check three things on each card: the licence (permissive versus copyleft), the language it is written in, and the last-push date — a high-star project that has not been pushed in a year is a liability.
Are these distributed-tracing projects still maintained?
19 of the 20 were pushed in the last 90 days, and every card shows its exact last-push date so you can see the rest. Sort your shortlist by that date before committing to a migration.