vioscale
Comparison

AWS X-Ray vs OpenTelemetry

On the evidence we track, OpenTelemetry leads this comparison with a composite score of 71/100. Scores are only directly comparable because these tools share a category; the full breakdown and every source is below.

AWS X-Ray full profile →OpenTelemetry full profile →
Machine formatsJSONMarkdownGraphQLor send Accept: application/json
AWS X-Ray64
★OpenTelemetry71
Score
Vioscale score
AWS X-Ray64 / 100medium · 63%
OpenTelemetry71 / 100medium · 61%
Pricing
Free tier
AWS X-Ray✓
OpenTelemetry✓
Model
AWS X-Rayfreemium
OpenTelemetrycommercial
Price level
AWS X-Raylow
OpenTelemetryfree
Transparent
AWS X-Ray✗
OpenTelemetry✓
Integrations
Count
AWS X-Ray–
OpenTelemetry3
Security
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–
Reliability
Status page
AWS X-Ray✓
OpenTelemetry✓
Adoption
Github stars
AWS X-Ray–
OpenTelemetry7,452
Package downloads weekly
AWS X-Ray–
OpenTelemetry110,515,759
Activity
Commits last 30d
AWS X-Ray–
OpenTelemetry97
Release
Cadence days
AWS X-Ray–
OpenTelemetry14
History
AWS X-Ray–
OpenTelemetry20 items
License
Spdx
AWS X-Ray–
OpenTelemetryApache-2.0
Language
Primary
AWS X-Ray–
OpenTelemetryGo
Market
Availability

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
OpenTelemetrySaaS platform
Standards
OpenTelemetry support
AWS X-Ray-
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

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.

Independently observed

OpenTelemetry

Leader

A standardized platform for instrumenting applications to collect traces, metrics, and logs. Data is collected through language-specific SDKs and services, then exported to any observability backend without requiring application code changes.

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

Usage-basedFree tier
as of verify ↗

OpenTelemetry

Leader
Open source
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✓
OpenTelemetry✗
CLI
AWS X-Ray✗
OpenTelemetry✓
Deployment
Cloud / SaaS
AWS X-Ray✓
OpenTelemetry✓
Self-hosted
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

Leader
3 total
  • Jaeger
  • Prometheus
  • Zipkin
Independently observed

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