# AWS X-Ray vs Grafana Tempo

**Leader by vioscaleAI score:** AWS X-Ray

| Attribute | AWS X-Ray | Grafana Tempo |
|---|---|---|
| **vioscaleAI score** | 72.1 (63% (medium)) | 63.6 (58% (medium)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | - | 100 |
| adoption.dependent_repos | - | 73 |
| adoption.github_stars | - | 5,527 |
| content.faq | `[{"answer":"Amazon CloudWatch Application Signals is an APM solution providing automatic instrumentation and observability for distributed applications across AWS services with prebuilt dashboards, service mapping, and AI-powered troubleshooting. It is indexed under Distributed Tracing Tools.","source":"https://aws.amazon.com/xray/","question":"What is AWS X-Ray?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"AWS X-Ray offers a free tier, so you can start without paying. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://aws.amazon.com/xray/","question":"Is AWS X-Ray free?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed browser-based access to AWS X-Ray. That is the extent of what we could verify from public sources, so it may well offer desktop or mobile clients we have not indexed.","source":"https://aws.amazon.com/xray/","question":"What platforms does AWS X-Ray support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have only confirmed a cloud / SaaS deployment for AWS X-Ray, so it appears to be vendor-hosted. If a self-hosted option exists we have not found it documented publicly.","source":"https://aws.amazon.com/xray/","question":"Can AWS X-Ray be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have independently confirmed SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA and GDPR for AWS X-Ray. Certifications we do not list are ones we have not been able to verify from public sources, which is not the same as AWS X-Ray not holding them. Always confirm compliance directly before you rely on it.","source":"https://aws.amazon.com/trust-center/?nc1=f_cc","question":"What security certifications does AWS X-Ray have?","confidence":0.7},{"answer":"AWS X-Ray is available worldwide. Its primary market is the United States. The vendor is headquartered in the United States.","source":"https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/?nc2=h_pr_ec2","question":"Where is AWS X-Ray available?","confidence":0.75}]` | `[{"answer":"Grafana Tempo is an open-source distributed tracing backend designed for high-scale trace collection using only object storage, integrating with Grafana, Prometheus, and Loki. It supports industry-standard tracing protocols and eliminates the need for expensive database infrastructure. It is indexed under Distributed Tracing Tools.","source":"https://grafana.com/oss/tempo/","question":"What is Grafana Tempo?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Grafana Tempo is open source, so it can be self-hosted and used at no licence cost. It is released under the AGPL-3.0 licence. A commercial or hosted edition starts at $19 per month. Prices are published openly on the vendor's own pricing page. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://grafana.com/oss/tempo/","question":"Is Grafana Tempo free to use?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Grafana Tempo supports the web and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://grafana.com/oss/tempo/","question":"What platforms does Grafana Tempo support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Grafana Tempo can be deployed cloud / SaaS and self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://grafana.com/oss/tempo/","question":"Can Grafana Tempo be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 7 integrations for Grafana Tempo, including Grafana, Prometheus, Loki, Jaeger, Zipkin, OpenTelemetry and OpenCensus. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://grafana.com/oss/tempo/","question":"What does Grafana Tempo integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have independently confirmed SOC 2, ISO 27001 and GDPR for Grafana Tempo. Certifications we do not list are ones we have not been able to verify from public sources, which is not the same as Grafana Tempo not holding them. Always confirm compliance directly before you rely on it.","source":"https://trust.grafana.com","question":"What security certifications does Grafana Tempo have?","confidence":0.7},{"answer":"Yes. Grafana Tempo is published under the AGPL-3.0 licence, a copyleft licence, so check its terms before embedding it in a closed-source product. Licence terms can change between releases, so verify against the repository for the version you intend to use.","source":"https://github.com/grafana/tempo","question":"Is Grafana Tempo open source?","confidence":0.95}]` |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true}` | `{"cloud":true,"on_prem":true,"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | A cloud-based monitoring and observability service that centralizes performance data from AWS services and on-premises applications, providing dashboards, automated insights, and distributed tracing capabilities through OpenTelemetry integration. | An open-source distributed tracing platform that stores trace data using affordable object storage rather than specialized databases, making it simpler and cheaper to operate while integrating with Grafana and other observability tools. |
| features.capabilities | `{"hosting":"cloud","trace_role":"backend","service_map":true,"otel_support":"ingest","trace_search":true,"metrics_correlation":true,"auto_instrumentation":"agent"}` | `{"hosting":"both","trace_role":"backend","service_map":true,"otel_support":"ingest","trace_search":true,"multi_protocol":true,"storage_backend":"object storage","high_cardinality":true,"metrics_correlation":true}` |
| integrations.count | - | 10 |
| integrations.list | - | `[{"name":"Grafana"},{"name":"Prometheus"},{"name":"Loki"},{"name":"Jaeger"},{"name":"Zipkin"},{"name":"OpenTelemetry"},{"name":"OpenCensus"},{"name":"Kafka","native":true,"direction":"inbound"},{"name":"Amazon S3","category":"storage"},{"name":"Google Cloud Storage","category":"storage"},{"name":"Microsoft Azure","category":"storage"}]` |
| language.primary | - | Go |
| license.spdx | - | AGPL-3.0 |
| market.availability | `{"primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` | - |
| platform.support | `{"web":true}` | `{"cli":true,"web":true,"linux":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"usage","plans":[{"free":true,"name":"Free tier","features":["3 Custom Dashboards","Automatic Dashboards","Free metrics from AWS services"],"contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"custom_dashboards":"3","automatic_dashboards":"unlimited","metrics_per_dashboard":"50"}},{"free":false,"name":"OpenTelemetry metrics ingestion","features":["15 months storage included","No API call charges","No per-metric-series charges"],"components":[{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"GB"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.5,"currency":"USD"}]},{"free":false,"name":"PromQL query API","features":["Console/dashboard queries free"],"components":[{"per":{"qty":1000000,"unit":"samples scanned"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.01,"currency":"USD"}]},{"free":false,"name":"Container Insights with OpenTelemetry","features":["EKS cluster metrics at 30-second granularity","Kubernetes pod/node labels","PromQL querying"],"components":[{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"GB"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.08,"currency":"USD"}]}],"summary":"Free tier available. Usage-based pricing: $0.50/GB for OpenTelemetry metrics, $0.08/GB for Container Insights, $0.01 per million query samples.","currency":"USD","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://aws.amazon.com/cloudwatch/pricing/","retrievedAt":"2026-10-13T10:31:43.005Z","startingPrice":{"unit":"samples scanned","amount":0.01,"currency":"USD"},"billingPeriods":["month"]}` | `{"type":"hybrid","plans":[{"free":true,"name":"Open Source","description":"Grafana Tempo open source (AGPLv3)","contactSales":false},{"free":false,"name":"Grafana Cloud Pro","features":["Platform fee includes limited trace retention and usage","30 days retention for traces","8x5 email support"],"components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":19,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}],"contactSales":false},{"free":false,"name":"Grafana Cloud Enterprise","features":["Custom retention","Premium support","Deployment flexibility (Public Cloud, Federal Cloud, Bring Your Own Cloud)"],"commitment":"annual","components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":25000,"period":"year","currency":"USD"}],"contactSales":true}],"summary":"Open source (free). Grafana Cloud integration from $19/month or $25k/year enterprise.","currency":"USD","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://grafana.com/oss/tempo/","retrievedAt":"2026-08-01T14:57:40.524Z","startingPrice":{"amount":19,"period":"month","currency":"USD"},"billingPeriods":["month","year"]}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | freemium | freemium |
| pricing.price_level | low | low |
| pricing.starting_price | `{"amount":0.01,"currency":"USD"}` | - |
| pricing.transparent | yes | yes |
| release.cadence_days | - | 11 |
| release.history | - | `[{"url":"https://github.com/grafana/tempo/releases/tag/v3.1.0","date":"2026-09-29T17:06:39Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.1.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/grafana/tempo/releases/tag/v3.1.0-rc.1","date":"2026-09-17T17:22:52Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v3.1.0-rc.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/grafana/tempo/releases/tag/v3.0.3","date":"2026-08-13T20:37:13Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.0.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/grafana/tempo/releases/tag/v2.10.8","date":"2026-08-13T20:37:12Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.10.8"},{"url":"https://github.com/grafana/tempo/releases/tag/v2.9.5","date":"2026-08-13T20:37:04Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.9.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/grafana/tempo/releases/tag/v2.9.4","date":"2026-07-24T12:29:33Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.9.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/grafana/tempo/releases/tag/v2.10.7","date":"2026-06-12T16:28:23Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.10.7"},{"url":"https://github.com/grafana/tempo/releases/tag/v3.0.2","date":"2026-06-09T16:30:31Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.0.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/grafana/tempo/releases/tag/v2.10.6","date":"2026-06-08T21:43:32Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.10.6"},{"url":"https://github.com/grafana/tempo/releases/tag/v3.0.0","date":"2026-05-28T15:09:13Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.0.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/grafana/tempo/releases/tag/v3.0.0-rc.1","date":"2026-05-06T15:23:02Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v3.0.0-rc.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/grafana/tempo/releases/tag/v2.10.5","date":"2026-04-23T18:14:34Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.10.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/grafana/tempo/releases/tag/v2.9.2","date":"2026-04-23T22:24:52Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.9.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/grafana/tempo/releases/tag/v2.8.4","date":"2026-04-23T22:25:22Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.8.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/grafana/tempo/releases/tag/v2.10.4","date":"2026-04-13T11:20:01Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.10.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/grafana/tempo/releases/tag/v2.10.3","date":"2026-03-17T17:52:06Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.10.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/grafana/tempo/releases/tag/v2.10.2","date":"2026-03-12T15:04:28Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.10.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/grafana/tempo/releases/tag/v2.10.1","date":"2026-02-17T11:49:56Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.10.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/grafana/tempo/releases/tag/v2.10.0","date":"2026-01-26T17:59:35Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.10.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/grafana/tempo/releases/tag/v2.8.3","date":"2026-01-20T19:47:32Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.8.3"}]` |
| reliability.status_page | yes | yes |
| security.certifications | `[{"name":"PCI-DSS","status":"active"},{"name":"HIPAA/HITECH","status":"active"},{"name":"FedRAMP","status":"active"},{"name":"GDPR","status":"active"}]` | - |
| security.disclosure_policy | yes | yes |
| security.fedramp | yes | yes |
| security.gdpr | yes | yes |
| security.hipaa | yes | - |
| security.iso27001 | yes | yes |
| security.pci | yes | yes |
| security.scorecard | - | 7.4 |
| security.soc2 | yes | yes |
| security.trust_center | https://aws.amazon.com/security/ https://aws.amazon.com/compliance/ | https://grafana.com/security/hall-of-fame/issue_35/ |
| security.vulnerabilities | - | `{"count":3,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=go&package_name=github.com%2Fgrafana%2Ftempo&per_page=100","last_12m":3,"max_severity":"HIGH"}` |

## Capabilities (Distributed Tracing Tools)

| Capability | AWS X-Ray | Grafana Tempo |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Core** |  |  |
| Trace role | Trace backend / store | Trace backend / store |
| **Standards** |  |  |
| OpenTelemetry support | OTLP ingest | OTLP ingest |
| Multi-protocol (Jaeger + Zipkin + OTLP) | - | ✓ |
| **Query** |  |  |
| Trace search / filter by attributes | ✓ | ✓ |
| Service dependency graph | ✓ | ✓ |
| High-cardinality attribute exploration | - | ✓ |
| **Sampling** |  |  |
| Tail-based / dynamic sampling | - | - |
| **Instrumentation** |  |  |
| Auto-instrumentation | Agent-based | - |
| **Correlation** |  |  |
| Correlate traces with metrics/logs | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Deployment** |  |  |
| Hosting | Cloud only | Cloud + self-hosted |
| **Architecture** |  |  |
| Storage backend | - | object storage |

*Source: vioscaleAI. Generated 2026-10-17T01:36:07.970Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*