Comparison

Blackfire vs Glowroot

On the evidence we track, Blackfire leads this comparison with a composite score of 64/100. Scores are only directly comparable because these tools share a category; the full breakdown and every source is below.

Blackfire full profile →Glowroot full profile →

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★Blackfire64

Glowroot53

Attribute comparison across 2 tools
Attribute	BlackfireLeader	Glowroot
Vioscale score	64 / 100medium · 72%updating	53 / 100medium · 53%updating
Pricing
Free tierpricing.free_tier	✗	-
Modelpricing.model	commercial	open_source
Price levelpricing.price_level	mid	free
Transparentpricing.transparent	✓	✓
Integrations
Countintegrations.count	6	50
Security
Disclosure policysecurity.disclosure_policy	✓	-
Hipaasecurity.hipaa	✓	-
Iso27001security.iso27001	✓	-
Pcisecurity.pci	✓	-
Scorecardsecurity.scorecard	-	4.2
Soc2security.soc2	✓	-
Vulnerabilitiessecurity.vulnerabilities	-	Count: 0 · Source: https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=maven&package_name=org.glowroot%3Aglowroot-agent-api&per_page=100 · Last 12m: 0
Reliability
Status pagereliability.status_page	✓	✓
Adoption
Dependent reposadoption.dependent_repos	-	13
Github starsadoption.github_stars	-	1,355
Activity
Commits last 30dactivity.commits_last_30d	-	27
Release
Cadence daysrelease.cadence_days	-	19
Historyrelease.history	-	20 items
License
Spdxlicense.spdx	-	Apache-2.0
Language
Primarylanguage.primary	-	Java

Score

Vioscale score

Blackfire64 / 100medium · 72%updating

Glowroot53 / 100medium · 53%updating

Pricing

Free tier

Blackfire✗

Glowroot–

Model

Blackfirecommercial

Glowrootopen_source

Price level

Blackfiremid

Glowrootfree

Transparent

Blackfire✓

Glowroot✓

Integrations

Count

Blackfire6

Glowroot50

Security

Disclosure policy

Blackfire✓

Glowroot–

Hipaa

Blackfire✓

Glowroot–

Iso27001

Blackfire✓

Glowroot–

Pci

Blackfire✓

Glowroot–

Scorecard

Blackfire–

Glowroot4.2

Soc2

Blackfire✓

Glowroot–

Vulnerabilities

Blackfire–

GlowrootCount: 0 · Source: https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=maven&package_name=org.glowroot%3Aglowroot-agent-api&per_page=100 · Last 12m: 0

Reliability

Status page

Blackfire✓

Glowroot✓

Adoption

Dependent repos

Blackfire–

Glowroot13

Github stars

Blackfire–

Glowroot1,355

Activity

Commits last 30d

Blackfire–

Glowroot27

Release

Cadence days

Blackfire–

Glowroot19

History

Blackfire–

Glowroot20 items

License

Spdx

Blackfire–

GlowrootApache-2.0

Language

Primary

Blackfire–

GlowrootJava

Capabilities

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

Capability comparison for APM Tools
Capability	Blackfire	Glowroot
Instrumentation
Auto-instrumentation	✓	✓
Distributed tracing	✓	✓
Insight
Service map	-	-
Code / continuous profiling	✓	✓
Database monitoring	✓	✓
Error analytics	-	✓
Real-user monitoring	✓	-
SLO / error-budget tracking	-	-
Intelligence
Anomaly / root-cause AI	-	-
Standards
OpenTelemetry support	-	None
Core
Language agents	PHP, Python	Java
Deployment
Hosting	Cloud only	Self-hosted only

Instrumentation

Auto-instrumentation

Blackfire✓

Glowroot✓

Distributed tracing

Blackfire✓

Glowroot✓

Insight

Service map

Blackfire-

Glowroot-

Code / continuous profiling

Blackfire✓

Glowroot✓

Database monitoring

Blackfire✓

Glowroot✓

Error analytics

Blackfire-

Glowroot✓

Real-user monitoring

Blackfire✓

Glowroot-

SLO / error-budget tracking

Blackfire-

Glowroot-

Intelligence

Anomaly / root-cause AI

Blackfire-

Glowroot-

Standards

OpenTelemetry support

Blackfire-

GlowrootNone

Core

Language agents

BlackfirePHP, Python

GlowrootJava

Deployment

Hosting

BlackfireCloud only

GlowrootSelf-hosted only

What each one is

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

Blackfire

Leader

Blackfire is an Application Performance Management platform offering both monitoring and profiling solutions for PHP and Python applications. It helps teams identify performance bottlenecks, optimize code, and prevent production crises with automated profiling and actionable recommendations.

Independently observed

Glowroot

Glowroot is a Java application performance monitoring (APM) tool that captures request traces, provides continuous profiling, response time analysis, and database monitoring with extensive library and framework instrumentation.

Independently observed

Pricing

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

Blackfire

Leader

from €33.25/moSubscription

From €33.25/month (Development, annual) to €158.25/month (Production, annual with 2 months free). Demo environment available; free plan for GitHub Student Developer Pack members.

Production€158.25/month billed yearly (2 months free) or €189.90/month
- Profiling
- Performance Monitoring
- Continuous Profiling
- Alerting
- Continuous Testing
- +16 more
Development€33.25/month billed yearly (yearly only)
- Profiling
- Manual assertions
- Upsun integration

as of 2026-08-13verify ↗

Glowroot

Open source

as of 2026-08-03verify ↗

Platform & deployment

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

Platform and deployment support comparison
Supports	Blackfire	Glowroot
WebPlatforms	✓	✓
CLIPlatforms	✓	✗
Cloud / SaaSDeployment	✓	✗
Self-hostedDeployment	✗	✓

Platforms

Web

Blackfire✓

Glowroot✓

CLI

Blackfire✓

Glowroot✗

Deployment

Cloud / SaaS

Blackfire✓

Glowroot✗

Self-hosted

Blackfire✗

Glowroot✓

Integrations

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

Blackfire

Leader

6 total

PHPUnit
Symfony Functional Tests
Behat
GitHub Education
CI/CD pipelines
Upsun

Independently observed

Glowroot

39 total

Apache Camel
Cassandra
EJB
Elasticsearch
Grails
Hibernate
Apache HttpClient
Apache HttpAsyncClient
AsyncHttpClient
OkHttp
JavaMail
JAX-RS
JAX-WS
JDBC
JMS
JSF
JSP
Kafka
JUL
Log4j
Logback
MongoDB
Netty
Play Framework
+15 more

Independently observed

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