Comparison

Uptrace vs Zipkin

On the evidence we track, Uptrace leads this comparison with a composite score of 63/100. Scores are only directly comparable because these tools share a category; the full breakdown and every source is below.

Uptrace full profile →Zipkin full profile →

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★Uptrace63

Zipkin43

Attribute comparison across 2 tools
Attribute	UptraceLeader	Zipkin
Vioscale score	63 / 100medium · 63%	43 / 100low · 38%
Pricing
Free tierpricing.free_tier	✓	✓
Modelpricing.model	freemium	open_source
Price levelpricing.price_level	low	free
Transparentpricing.transparent	✓	-
Integrations
Countintegrations.count	14	10
Security
Gdprsecurity.gdpr	✓	-
Scorecardsecurity.scorecard	-	4.2
Soc2security.soc2	✓	-
Vulnerabilitiessecurity.vulnerabilities	Count: 0 · Source: https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=go&package_name=github.com%2Fuptrace%2Fuptrace%2Fexample%2Fkvrocks&per_page=100 · Last 12m: 0	Count: 0 · Source: https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=maven&package_name=io.zipkin.java%3Azipkin-autoconfigure-ui&per_page=100 · Last 12m: 0
Reliability
Sla pctreliability.sla_pct	99.9	-
Status pagereliability.status_page	✓	✓
Adoption
Dependent reposadoption.dependent_repos	0	1,426
Github starsadoption.github_stars	4,270	17,453
Package downloads weeklyadoption.package_downloads_weekly	3,588	-
Activity
Commits last 30dactivity.commits_last_30d	-	0
Release
Cadence daysrelease.cadence_days	11	15
Historyrelease.history	20 items	20 items
License
Spdxlicense.spdx	AGPL-3.0	Apache-2.0
Language
Primarylanguage.primary	Go	Java
Market
Availabilitymarket.availability	Available worldwide · Popular in US	-

Score

Vioscale score

Uptrace63 / 100medium · 63%

Zipkin43 / 100low · 38%

Pricing

Free tier

Uptrace✓

Zipkin✓

Model

Uptracefreemium

Zipkinopen_source

Price level

Uptracelow

Zipkinfree

Transparent

Uptrace✓

Zipkin–

Integrations

Count

Uptrace14

Zipkin10

Security

Gdpr

Uptrace✓

Zipkin–

Scorecard

Uptrace–

Zipkin4.2

Soc2

Uptrace✓

Zipkin–

Vulnerabilities

UptraceCount: 0 · Source: https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=go&package_name=github.com%2Fuptrace%2Fuptrace%2Fexample%2Fkvrocks&per_page=100 · Last 12m: 0

ZipkinCount: 0 · Source: https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=maven&package_name=io.zipkin.java%3Azipkin-autoconfigure-ui&per_page=100 · Last 12m: 0

Reliability

Sla pct

Uptrace99.9

Zipkin–

Status page

Uptrace✓

Zipkin✓

Adoption

Dependent repos

Uptrace0

Zipkin1,426

Github stars

Uptrace4,270

Zipkin17,453

Package downloads weekly

Uptrace3,588

Zipkin–

Activity

Commits last 30d

Uptrace–

Zipkin0

Release

Cadence days

Uptrace11

Zipkin15

History

Uptrace20 items

Zipkin20 items

License

Spdx

UptraceAGPL-3.0

ZipkinApache-2.0

Language

Primary

UptraceGo

ZipkinJava

Market

Availability

UptraceAvailable worldwide · Popular in US

Zipkin–

Capabilities

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

Capability comparison for Distributed Tracing Tools
Capability	Uptrace	Zipkin
Core
Trace role	SaaS platform	Trace backend / store
Standards
OpenTelemetry support	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	None	Agent-based
Correlation
Correlate traces with metrics/logs	✓	-
Deployment
Hosting	Cloud + self-hosted	Self-hosted only
Architecture
Storage backend	ClickHouse with PostgreSQL for metadata	In-memory, Apache Cassandra, Elasticsearch, OpenSearch

Core

Trace role

UptraceSaaS platform

ZipkinTrace backend / store

Standards

OpenTelemetry support

UptraceOTel-native

Zipkin-

Multi-protocol (Jaeger + Zipkin + OTLP)

Uptrace✓

Zipkin✓

Query

Trace search / filter by attributes

Uptrace✓

Zipkin✓

Service dependency graph

Uptrace✓

Zipkin✓

High-cardinality attribute exploration

Uptrace✓

Zipkin-

Sampling

Tail-based / dynamic sampling

Uptrace-

Zipkin-

Instrumentation

Auto-instrumentation

UptraceNone

ZipkinAgent-based

Correlation

Correlate traces with metrics/logs

Uptrace✓

Zipkin-

Deployment

Hosting

UptraceCloud + self-hosted

ZipkinSelf-hosted only

Architecture

Storage backend

UptraceClickHouse with PostgreSQL for metadata

ZipkinIn-memory, Apache Cassandra, Elasticsearch, OpenSearch

What each one is

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

Uptrace

Leader

Full-featured observability backend built on OpenTelemetry standards and ClickHouse. Provides distributed tracing, metrics, and log management with dramatically lower costs than competing platforms through pay-per-gigabyte billing rather than enterprise licensing models.

Independently observed

Zipkin

Collects timing and dependency data from instrumented applications to troubleshoot latency issues. Provides a web interface for querying traces by service, operation, tags, or duration, and displays how requests flow through the service architecture.

Independently observed

Pricing

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

Uptrace

Leader

from $0.03/moHybridFree tier

Free tier includes 50 GB/month. Usage: $0.10/GB (scales to $0.016/GB), $0.025/M datapoints for metrics. Volume discounts automatic. No per-seat fees, unlimited users.

FreeFree
- Full platform access
- 50+ pre-built dashboards
- Service graph
- Alerts and notifications
- Unlimited users, services, and hosts
Pay-as-you-goTraces/logs: $0.10/GB (scales to $0.016/GB). Metrics: $0.025/M datapoints. Hard spending cap available.
- Distributed tracing
- Metrics monitoring
- Log aggregation
- Custom dashboards
- PromQL queries
- +1 more
On-PremisesContact sales
- Full feature parity with cloud
- No feature limits
- Custom retention policies
- Dedicated support engineer
- SOC 2 certification available
- +1 more

as of 2026-08-14verify ↗

Zipkin

Open source

as of 2026-08-14verify ↗

Platform & deployment

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

Platform and deployment support comparison
Supports	Uptrace	Zipkin
WebPlatforms	✓	✓
macOSPlatforms	✗	✓
LinuxPlatforms	✗	✓
Cloud / SaaSDeployment	✓	✗
Self-hostedDeployment	✓	✓
On-premiseDeployment	✓	✓
HybridDeployment	✓	✗

Platforms

Web

Uptrace✓

Zipkin✓

macOS

Uptrace✗

Zipkin✓

Linux

Uptrace✗

Zipkin✓

Deployment

Cloud / SaaS

Uptrace✓

Zipkin✗

Self-hosted

Uptrace✓

Zipkin✓

On-premise

Uptrace✓

Zipkin✓

Hybrid

Uptrace✓

Zipkin✗

Integrations

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

Uptrace

Leader

14 total

OpenTelemetry
Prometheus
Vector
FluentBit
CloudWatch
Grafana
GitHub Actions
Slack
PagerDuty
AlertManager
WebHook
Google Cloud Auth
Okta
Keycloak

Independently observed

Zipkin

10 total

HTTP
Kafka
Apache ActiveMQ
gRPC
RabbitMQ
Apache Pulsar
Elasticsearch
Apache Cassandra
OpenSearch
Brave

Independently observed

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