Comparison

AWS X-Ray vs OpenTelemetry

No clear leader: AWS X-Ray (72.1) and OpenTelemetry (68.6) are within the 5-point margin; treat as a tie. The attribute-by-attribute breakdown below, with a source and date on every value, is the honest way to compare them.

AWS X-Ray full profile →OpenTelemetry full profile →

Machine formatsMarkdownJSONGraphQLMarkdown is open. JSON and GraphQL need a free key.

AWS X-Ray72

OpenTelemetry69

Attribute comparison across 2 tools
Attribute	AWS X-Ray	OpenTelemetry
vioscaleAI score	72 / 100medium · 63%	69 / 100low · 46%
Pricing
Free tierpricing.free_tier	✓	✓
Modelpricing.model	freemium	commercial
Price levelpricing.price_level	low	free
Starting pricepricing.starting_price	$0.01	-
Transparentpricing.transparent	✓	✓
Integrations
Countintegrations.count	-	2
Security
Certificationssecurity.certifications	PCI-DSS, HIPAA/HITECH, FedRAMP, GDPR	-
Disclosure policysecurity.disclosure_policy	✓	✓
Fedrampsecurity.fedramp	✓	-
Gdprsecurity.gdpr	✓	✓
Hipaasecurity.hipaa	✓	-
Iso27001security.iso27001	✓	-
Pcisecurity.pci	✓	-
Scorecardsecurity.scorecard	-	7.9
Soc2security.soc2	✓	-
Trust centersecurity.trust_center	https://aws.amazon.com/security/ https://aws.amazon.com/compliance/	https://opentelemetry.io/bn/docs/zero-code/obi/security/
Reliability
Status pagereliability.status_page	✓	✓
Adoption
Github starsadoption.github_stars	-	7,657
Package downloads weeklyadoption.package_downloads_weekly	-	136,546,252
Activity
Commits last 30dactivity.commits_last_30d	-	100
Release
Cadence daysrelease.cadence_days	-	13
Historyrelease.history	-	20 items
License
Spdxlicense.spdx	-	Apache-2.0
Language
Primarylanguage.primary	-	Go
Market
Availabilitymarket.availability	Available worldwide	Available worldwide
Content
Faqcontent.faq	6 items	7 items

Score

vioscaleAI score

AWS X-Ray72 / 100medium · 63%

OpenTelemetry69 / 100low · 46%

Pricing

Free tier

AWS X-Ray✓

OpenTelemetry✓

Model

AWS X-Rayfreemium

OpenTelemetrycommercial

Price level

AWS X-Raylow

OpenTelemetryfree

Starting price

AWS X-Ray$0.01

OpenTelemetry–

Transparent

AWS X-Ray✓

OpenTelemetry✓

Integrations

Count

AWS X-Ray–

OpenTelemetry2

Security

Certifications

AWS X-RayPCI-DSS, HIPAA/HITECH, FedRAMP, GDPR

OpenTelemetry–

Disclosure policy

AWS X-Ray✓

OpenTelemetry✓

Fedramp

AWS X-Ray✓

OpenTelemetry–

Gdpr

AWS X-Ray✓

OpenTelemetry✓

Hipaa

AWS X-Ray✓

OpenTelemetry–

Iso27001

AWS X-Ray✓

OpenTelemetry–

Pci

AWS X-Ray✓

OpenTelemetry–

Scorecard

AWS X-Ray–

OpenTelemetry7.9

Soc2

AWS X-Ray✓

OpenTelemetry–

Trust center

AWS X-Rayhttps://aws.amazon.com/security/ https://aws.amazon.com/compliance/

OpenTelemetryhttps://opentelemetry.io/bn/docs/zero-code/obi/security/

Reliability

Status page

AWS X-Ray✓

OpenTelemetry✓

Adoption

Github stars

AWS X-Ray–

OpenTelemetry7,657

Package downloads weekly

AWS X-Ray–

OpenTelemetry136,546,252

Activity

Commits last 30d

AWS X-Ray–

OpenTelemetry100

Release

Cadence days

AWS X-Ray–

OpenTelemetry13

History

AWS X-Ray–

OpenTelemetry20 items

License

Spdx

AWS X-Ray–

OpenTelemetryApache-2.0

Language

Primary

AWS X-Ray–

OpenTelemetryGo

Market

Availability

AWS X-RayAvailable worldwide

OpenTelemetryAvailable worldwide

Content

Faq

AWS X-Ray6 items

OpenTelemetry7 items

Capabilities

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

Capability comparison for Distributed Tracing Tools
Capability	AWS X-Ray	OpenTelemetry
Core
Trace role	Trace backend / store	SaaS platform
Standards
OpenTelemetry support	OTLP ingest	OTel-native
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	Agent-based
Correlation
Correlate traces with metrics/logs	✓	✓
Deployment
Hosting	Cloud only	Cloud + self-hosted
Architecture
Storage backend	-	-

Core

Trace role

AWS X-RayTrace backend / store

OpenTelemetrySaaS platform

Standards

OpenTelemetry support

AWS X-RayOTLP ingest

OpenTelemetryOTel-native

Multi-protocol (Jaeger + Zipkin + OTLP)

AWS X-Ray-

OpenTelemetry✓

Query

Trace search / filter by attributes

AWS X-Ray✓

OpenTelemetry✓

Service dependency graph

AWS X-Ray✓

OpenTelemetry✓

High-cardinality attribute exploration

AWS X-Ray-

OpenTelemetry-

Sampling

Tail-based / dynamic sampling

AWS X-Ray-

OpenTelemetry-

Instrumentation

Auto-instrumentation

AWS X-RayAgent-based

OpenTelemetryAgent-based

Correlation

Correlate traces with metrics/logs

AWS X-Ray✓

OpenTelemetry✓

Deployment

Hosting

AWS X-RayCloud only

OpenTelemetryCloud + self-hosted

Architecture

Storage backend

AWS X-Ray-

OpenTelemetry-

What each one is

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

AWS X-Ray

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

OpenTelemetry

OpenTelemetry is an open-source framework that equips developers with SDKs, libraries, agents, and collector services to capture distributed traces, metrics, and logs from applications. It enables vendor-neutral observability by allowing teams to instrument code once and export telemetry data to any backend system without vendor lock-in.

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

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 2026-10-13verify ↗

OpenTelemetry

Open source

as of 2026-08-24verify ↗

Platform & deployment

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

Platform and deployment support comparison
Supports	AWS X-Ray	OpenTelemetry
WebPlatforms	✓	✗
WindowsPlatforms	✗	✓
Cloud / SaaSDeployment	✓	✓
On-premiseDeployment	✗	✓
HybridDeployment	✗	✓

Platforms

Web

AWS X-Ray✓

OpenTelemetry✗

Windows

AWS X-Ray✗

OpenTelemetry✓

Deployment

Cloud / SaaS

AWS X-Ray✓

OpenTelemetry✓

On-premise

AWS X-Ray✗

OpenTelemetry✓

Hybrid

AWS X-Ray✗

OpenTelemetry✓

Integrations

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

AWS X-Ray

Not documented yet.

OpenTelemetry

3 total

Jaeger
Prometheus
Zipkin

Independently observed

Still deciding?

AWS X-Ray or OpenTelemetry: 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.