# AWS X-Ray vs Honeycomb

| Attribute | AWS X-Ray | Honeycomb |
|---|---|---|
| **Vioscale score** | 63.6 (63% (medium)) | 62.8 (49% (low)) |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true}` | `{"cloud":true,"hybrid":true,"on_prem":true,"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | 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. | A cloud observability platform that enables engineering teams to trace distributed services, debug AI agent workflows, and investigate production issues across multiple services and LLM calls in real time. Includes metrics, alerting, SLOs, and AI-assisted debugging capabilities. |
| features.capabilities | `{"hosting":"cloud","trace_role":"backend","service_map":true,"trace_search":true,"metrics_correlation":true,"auto_instrumentation":"agent"}` | `{"hosting":"both","trace_role":"backend","service_map":true,"otel_support":"native","trace_search":true,"tail_sampling":false,"multi_protocol":true,"high_cardinality":true,"metrics_correlation":true}` |
| integrations.count | - | 9 |
| integrations.list | - | `[{"name":"Anthropic Claude"},{"name":"OpenTelemetry"},{"name":"Google Analytics"},{"name":"Slack"},{"name":"Microsoft Teams"},{"name":"AWS PrivateLink"},{"name":"Jaeger"},{"name":"Zipkin"},{"name":"OTLP"}]` |
| market.availability | `{"hqCountry":"US","primaryMarkets":["US"],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` | `{"hqCountry":"US","primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` |
| platform.support | `{"web":true}` | `{"cli":true,"web":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"usage","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://aws.amazon.com/xray/","retrievedAt":"2026-08-05T14:23:37.355Z"}` | `{"type":"subscription","plans":[{"free":true,"name":"Free","summary":"Free forever, up to 20M events/month","features":["Distributed Tracing","2 Triggers","BubbleUp","OpenTelemetry Support","Team Query History","Query Result Permalinks","Honeycomb Metrics","Canvas AI Copilot","Honeycomb MCP","Agent Timeline"],"components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":0,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}],"description":"Testing and individual projects","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"events":"20M/month","metrics_data_points":"100M/month"}},{"free":false,"name":"Pro","summary":"Starting at $150/month, flexible event volume","features":["All Free features","100 Triggers","2 Service Level Objectives (SLOs)","Single-Sign On (SSO)","Honeycomb Support"],"commitment":"monthly","components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":150,"period":"month","currency":"USD"},{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"gb"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.1,"currency":"USD"}],"description":"Teams with production applications","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"events":"750M/month","metrics_data_points":"3.75B/month"}},{"free":false,"name":"Enterprise","summary":"Custom volume discounts, enterprise support","features":["All Pro features","300+ Triggers","100+ Service Level Objectives (SLOs)","Service Map","Enterprise Support for Refinery","Enterprise-Grade Support + Onboarding","Query Data API","AWS PrivateLink","SLO Reporting API","Honeycomb Private Cloud support"],"commitment":"annual","description":"Multi-team and large-scale applications","contactSales":true,"includedLimits":{"events":"Variable","metrics_data_points":"Variable"}}],"addOns":[{"name":"Frontend performance analysis"},{"name":"Enterprise-grade alerting"},{"name":"Installation and enablement services"}],"summary":"From $150/month (Pro). Unlimited seats and queries. Free tier available.","currency":"USD","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://www.honeycomb.io/pricing","retrievedAt":"2026-08-14T15:29:52.948Z","startingPrice":{"amount":0.1,"period":"month","currency":"USD"},"billingPeriods":["month","year"]}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | freemium | freemium |
| pricing.price_level | low | low |
| pricing.transparent | no | yes |
| reliability.status_page | yes | yes |
| security.disclosure_policy | yes | - |
| security.fedramp | yes | - |
| security.gdpr | yes | yes |
| security.hipaa | yes | - |
| security.iso27001 | yes | - |
| security.pci | yes | - |
| security.soc2 | yes | - |

## Capabilities (Distributed Tracing Tools)

| Capability | AWS X-Ray | Honeycomb |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Core** |  |  |
| Trace role | Trace backend / store | 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 | Agent-based | - |
| **Correlation** |  |  |
| Correlate traces with metrics/logs | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Deployment** |  |  |
| Hosting | Cloud only | Cloud + self-hosted |
| **Architecture** |  |  |
| Storage backend | - | - |

*Source: Vioscale. Generated 2026-09-01T15:18:42.635Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*