Apache SkyWalking
Apache APM platform for service topology, distributed tracing, metrics, logs, and cloud-native diagnostics.
Traces
Grafana
The de-facto open-source dashboard layer. Plug into Prometheus, Loki, Tempo, InfluxDB — one pane of glass.
Grafana Tempo
High-scale distributed tracing backend. Stores traces in cheap object storage (S3, GCS).
HyperDX
Open-source Datadog alternative that correlates logs, metrics, traces, and session replays in one UI.
Jaeger
The CNCF graduated distributed tracing system, originally from Uber. The default open-source choice for traces.
OpenObserve
Rust-based, columnar, object-storage-backed. Claims 140x lower storage cost than Elasticsearch for logs.
OpenTelemetry Collector
Vendor-neutral telemetry collector for receiving, processing, and exporting traces, metrics, and logs.
Perses
CNCF dashboarding tool with dashboards-as-code, static validation, and Kubernetes-native workflows. A GitOps-friendly Grafana alternative.
Quickwit
Rust search engine for logs and traces with sub-second queries directly against S3-compatible object storage.
SigNoz
Full-stack, OpenTelemetry-native APM + logs + metrics. The closest single-tool Datadog alternative.
Uptrace
OpenTelemetry APM backed by ClickHouse. Lean alternative to SigNoz.
Zipkin
The original open-source distributed tracing system, born at Twitter in 2012. Single-binary simplicity, still maintained.