vioscaleAI
Comparison

AWS X-Ray vs Honeycomb

On the evidence we track, AWS X-Ray leads this comparison with a composite score of 72/100. Scores are only directly comparable because these tools share a category; the full breakdown and every source is below.

AWS X-Ray full profile →Honeycomb full profile →
Machine formatsMarkdownJSONGraphQLMarkdown is open. JSON and GraphQL need a free key.
★AWS X-Ray72
Honeycomb59
Score
vioscaleAI score
AWS X-Ray72 / 100medium · 63%
Honeycomb59 / 100medium · 72%
Pricing
Free tier
AWS X-Ray✓
Honeycomb✓
Model
AWS X-Rayfreemium
Honeycombfreemium
Price level
AWS X-Raylow
Honeycomblow
Starting price
AWS X-Ray$0.01
Honeycomb–
Transparent
AWS X-Ray✓
Honeycomb✓
Integrations
Count
AWS X-Ray–
Honeycomb19
Security
Certifications
Disclosure policy
AWS X-Ray✓
Honeycomb–
Fedramp
AWS X-Ray✓
Honeycomb–
Gdpr
AWS X-Ray✓
Honeycomb✓
Hipaa
AWS X-Ray✓
Honeycomb–
Iso27001
AWS X-Ray✓
Honeycomb–
Pci
AWS X-Ray✓
Honeycomb–
Soc2
AWS X-Ray✓
Honeycomb✓
Trust center
Reliability
Status page
AWS X-Ray✓
Honeycomb✓
Market
Availability
Content
Faq
AWS X-Ray6 items
Honeycomb7 items

Capabilities

Feature-by-feature on the axes that matter for distributed tracing tools. “-” means undocumented, not absent.

Core
Trace role
AWS X-RayTrace backend / store
HoneycombTrace backend / store
Standards
OpenTelemetry support
AWS X-RayOTLP ingest
HoneycombOTel-native
Multi-protocol (Jaeger + Zipkin + OTLP)
AWS X-Ray-
Honeycomb✓
Query
Trace search / filter by attributes
AWS X-Ray✓
Honeycomb✓
Service dependency graph
AWS X-Ray✓
Honeycomb✓
High-cardinality attribute exploration
AWS X-Ray-
Honeycomb✓
Sampling
Tail-based / dynamic sampling
AWS X-Ray-
Honeycomb✗
Instrumentation
Auto-instrumentation
AWS X-RayAgent-based
Honeycomb-
Correlation
Correlate traces with metrics/logs
AWS X-Ray✓
Honeycomb✓
Deployment
Hosting
AWS X-RayCloud only
HoneycombCloud + self-hosted
Architecture
Storage backend
AWS X-Ray-
Honeycombcolumnar data store

What each one is

The product in its own terms, so the numbers below have context.

AWS X-Ray

Leader

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.

Independently observed

Honeycomb

Centralized platform for storing and querying observability data from production systems and AI applications, designed to help teams rapidly troubleshoot issues through integrated logs, metrics, and traces.

Independently observed

Pricing

List pricing as published by each vendor, with the date we read it. Always verify at the source before you buy.

AWS X-Ray

Leader
from $0.01/samples scannedUsage-basedFree tier

Free tier available. Usage-based pricing: $0.50/GB for OpenTelemetry metrics, $0.08/GB for Container Insights, $0.01 per million query samples.

  • Free tierFree
    • 3 Custom Dashboards
    • Automatic Dashboards
    • Free metrics from AWS services
  • OpenTelemetry metrics ingestion$0.50 per GB
    • 15 months storage included
    • No API call charges
    • No per-metric-series charges
  • PromQL query API$0.01 per 1000000 samples scanned
    • Console/dashboard queries free
  • Container Insights with OpenTelemetry$0.08 per GB
    • EKS cluster metrics at 30-second granularity
    • Kubernetes pod/node labels
    • PromQL querying
as of verify ↗

Honeycomb

from $0.10/moSubscriptionFree tier

From $150/month (Pro). Unlimited seats and queries. Free tier available.

  • FreeFree
    • Distributed Tracing
    • 2 Triggers
    • BubbleUp
    • OpenTelemetry Support
    • Team Query History
    • +5 more
  • ProStarting at $150/month, flexible event volume
    • All Free features
    • 100 Triggers
    • 2 Service Level Objectives (SLOs)
    • Single-Sign On (SSO)
    • Honeycomb Support
  • EnterpriseContact sales
    • All Pro features
    • 300+ Triggers
    • 100+ Service Level Objectives (SLOs)
    • Service Map
    • Enterprise Support for Refinery
    • +5 more
as of verify ↗

Platform & deployment

Where each product runs and how it can be hosted. A dash means undocumented, not unsupported.

Platforms
Web
AWS X-Ray✓
Honeycomb✓
Deployment
Cloud / SaaS
AWS X-Ray✓
Honeycomb✓

Integrations

What each product connects to. Counts come from the vendor's own integration directory where one exists.

AWS X-Ray

Leader

Not documented yet.

Honeycomb

26 total
  • Anthropic Claude
  • OpenTelemetry
  • Google Analytics
  • Slack
  • Microsoft Teams
  • AWS PrivateLink
  • Jaeger
  • Zipkin
  • OTLP
  • Cursor
  • Claude Code
  • Amazon Bedrock AgentCore
  • MySQL
  • Prometheus
  • ServiceNow
  • GitHub Actions Honeymarker
  • AWS Secrets Manager
  • AWS CloudFront
  • AWS CloudWatch
  • Amazon Timestream
  • Tracetest
  • Amazon Kinesis
  • AWS CloudHSM
  • Fluentd
  • +2 more
Independently observed
Still deciding?

AWS X-Ray or Honeycomb: which one depends on you

A composite score cannot know your constraints. Describe them and both get re-weighted against what you actually need, with the evidence behind every position.

Free to run, no account needed to start. How the evaluation works

Comparison generated from independently-sourced facts. Every value links to its source and retrieval date. See the method.