Grafana Tempo
A scalable distributed tracing backend optimized for cost and operational simplicity
- Vendor
- Grafana Labs
- Also known as
- grafana-tempo
What is Grafana Tempo?
An open-source distributed tracing platform that stores trace data using affordable object storage rather than specialized databases, making it simpler and cheaper to operate while integrating with Grafana and other observability tools.
Grafana Tempo pricing
Plans, per-tier features and add-ons, dated and linked to live pricing. Pricing changes often; always verify at source before you rely on it.
Open source (free). Grafana Cloud integration from $19/month or $25k/year enterprise.
Open Source
FreeGrafana Tempo open source (AGPLv3)
Grafana Cloud Pro
- Platform fee includes limited trace retention and usage
- 30 days retention for traces
- 8x5 email support
Grafana Cloud Enterprise
Contact sales- Custom retention
- Premium support
- Deployment flexibility (Public Cloud, Federal Cloud, Bring Your Own Cloud)
What Grafana Tempo does
The capabilities that matter for distributed tracing tools, normalised so it lines up with every alternative. “-” means we haven't confirmed it, not that it's missing.
- Trace role
- Trace backend / store
- OpenTelemetry support
- OTLP ingest
- Multi-protocol (Jaeger + Zipkin + OTLP)
- ✓
- Trace search / filter by attributes
- ✓
- Service dependency graph
- ✓
- High-cardinality attribute exploration
- ✓
- Tail-based / dynamic sampling
- -
- Auto-instrumentation
- -
- Correlate traces with metrics/logs
- ✓
- Hosting
- Cloud + self-hosted
- Storage backend
- object storage
Platform & deployment
Independently observed- CLI
- Web
- Linux
- Cloud / SaaS
- On-premise
- Self-hosted
Integrations (11)
Independently observed- Amazon S3
- Google Cloud Storage
- Microsoft Azure
- Grafana
- Prometheus
- Loki
- Jaeger
- Zipkin
- OpenTelemetry
- OpenCensus
- Kafka←•
Security & compliance
Known vulnerabilities: 3 (3 in the last 12 months), max severity HIGH sourcea count reflects scale & disclosure, not quality
Grafana Tempo FAQ
Common questions about Grafana Tempo, answered from independent, dated evidence.
What is Grafana Tempo?
Grafana Tempo is an open-source distributed tracing backend designed for high-scale trace collection using only object storage, integrating with Grafana, Prometheus, and Loki. It supports industry-standard tracing protocols and eliminates the need for expensive database infrastructure. It is indexed under Distributed Tracing Tools.
Source: https://grafana.com/oss/tempo/
Is Grafana Tempo free to use?
Grafana Tempo is open source, so it can be self-hosted and used at no licence cost. It is released under the AGPL-3.0 licence. A commercial or hosted edition starts at $19 per month. Prices are published openly on the vendor's own pricing page. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.
Source: https://grafana.com/oss/tempo/
What platforms does Grafana Tempo support?
Grafana Tempo supports the web and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.
Source: https://grafana.com/oss/tempo/
Can Grafana Tempo be self-hosted?
Yes. Grafana Tempo can be deployed cloud / SaaS and self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.
Source: https://grafana.com/oss/tempo/
What does Grafana Tempo integrate with?
We have confirmed 7 integrations for Grafana Tempo, including Grafana, Prometheus, Loki, Jaeger, Zipkin, OpenTelemetry and OpenCensus. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.
Source: https://grafana.com/oss/tempo/
What security certifications does Grafana Tempo have?
We have independently confirmed SOC 2, ISO 27001 and GDPR for Grafana Tempo. Certifications we do not list are ones we have not been able to verify from public sources, which is not the same as Grafana Tempo not holding them. Always confirm compliance directly before you rely on it.
Source: https://trust.grafana.com
Is Grafana Tempo open source?
Yes. Grafana Tempo is published under the AGPL-3.0 licence, a copyleft licence, so check its terms before embedding it in a closed-source product. Licence terms can change between releases, so verify against the repository for the version you intend to use.
Source: https://github.com/grafana/tempo
Grafana Tempo alternatives
Other distributed tracing tools we track, ranked by the same independent score.
- AWS X-RayUnified monitoring platform for collecting and analyzing metrics, logs, and traces from AWS infrastructure and applicationsmedium · 63%
- OpenTelemetryOpen source framework for collecting and exporting distributed system telemetry without vendor lock-inlow · 46%
- HoneycombObservability platform for tracing and debugging distributed systems and AI workflows in productionmedium · 72%
- SigNozUnified observability platform consolidating logs, metrics, and traces on the OpenTelemetry standardmedium · 54%
- UptraceCost-efficient observability platform for application traces, metrics, and logsmedium · 69%
- JaegerOpen-source distributed tracing backend for monitoring and troubleshooting microservice applicationslow · 38%
Compare Grafana Tempo
Side by side against other distributed tracing tools, attribute by attribute, with a source on every value.
The vioscaleAI score: one lens on the evidence
Not user reviews and not a paid placement: a confidence-weighted blend of the independent signals below (adoption, activity, security posture, and more), which you can sort and re-weight yourself. Vendors can correct their listing but can never move their rank, and stars are weighted low as a vanity metric. It is one way to read the evidence for Grafana Tempo, not the verdict.
| Signal | Score | Weight | Contribution | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Security posture | 90 | 0.12 | 10.4 | ✓ |
| Reliability | 50 | 0.16 | 7.9 | ✓ |
| Pricing transparency | 100 | 0.06 | 6.3 | ✓ |
| Development activity | 63 | 0.09 | 5.9 | ✓ |
| Release cadence | 94 | 0.05 | 4.9 | ✓ |
| Capabilities | 75 | 0.06 | 4.7 | ✓ |
| Price level | 80 | 0.04 | 3.4 | ✓ |
| Security score | 74 | 0.04 | 3.1 | ✓ |
| Integrations | 30 | 0.08 | 2.5 | ✓ |
| Dependent projects | 31 | 0.06 | 2.0 | ✓ |
| Stars | 71 | 0.03 | 1.8 | ✓ |
| Package downloads | 0 | 0.14 | 0.0 | - |
| Developer Q&A activity | 0 | 0.06 | 0.0 | - |
Computed . Re-weight it by intent, or see the full method.
All data & sourcesshow ↓
Every value we hold, with its source, retrieval date, and confidence. This is the evidence behind the score: don't trust it, verify it.
Activity
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Commits last 30d | 100 | mediumsource · 2026-10-13 · 65% |
Adoption
Content
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Faq | 7 items | mediumsource · 2026-09-10 · 66% |
Features
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Capabilities | Hosting: both · Trace role: backend · Service map: Yes · Otel support: ingest · Trace search: Yes · Multi protocol: Yes | mediumsource · 2026-10-13 · 60% |
Integrations
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Count | 10 | mediumsource · 2026-10-13 · 60% |
Language
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Primary | Go | highsource · 2026-10-13 · 90% |
License
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Spdx | AGPL-3.0 | highsource · 2026-10-13 · 95% |
Pricing
Release
Reliability
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Status page | Yes | mediumsource · 2026-08-01 · 60% |
Security
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Disclosure policy | Yes | mediumsource · 2026-08-01 · 60% |
| Fedramp | Yes | highsource · 2026-08-01 · 75% |
| Gdpr | Yes | highsource · 2026-08-01 · 75% |
| Iso27001 | Yes | highsource · 2026-08-01 · 75% |
| Pci | Yes | highsource · 2026-08-01 · 75% |
| Soc2 | Yes | highsource · 2026-08-01 · 75% |
| Scorecard | 7.4 | highsource · 2026-10-13 · 90% |
| Vulnerabilities | Count: 3 · Source: https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=go&package_name=github.com%2Fgrafana%2Ftempo&per_page=100 · Last 12m: 3 · Max severity: HIGH | highsource · 2026-10-13 · 90% |
| Trust center | https://grafana.com/security/hall-of-fame/issue_35/ | mediumsource · 2026-10-13 · 60% |
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