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Jaeger

Free#28 of 37 in Application Performance MonitoringDistributed Tracing ToolsDistributed SystemsMonitoring Observability+1 more

Jaeger: A focused, self-hosted tracing platform for teams operating microservices. Ranked #28 of 37 in Application Performance Monitoring by our editors (6.7/10); pricing: Free plan; best for open-source distributed tracing infrastructure.

6.7/10Editor score
Visit Jaeger
Jaeger6.7 Visit Jaeger

At a glance

  • Editor score
    6.7 / 10
  • Pricing
    Free plan
  • Best for
    Open-source distributed tracing infrastructure
  • Free plan
    Yes
  • Paid from
    Free
  • Distributed tracing
    Yes
  • Founded
    2016
  • Facts checked
    23 Sep 2026
Jaeger screenshot

  • Where it wins

    • OTLP and Zipkin ingestion support
    • Topology graphs and trace-derived performance metrics
    • Flexible storage and Kubernetes deployment support

  • Where it doesn't

    • Focused on tracing rather than broader APM coverage
    • Self-hosted deployment requires infrastructure ownership
    • No RUM or log correlation capabilities

Our verdict on Jaeger

Jaeger is an open-source distributed tracing platform for developers and platform teams operating microservices and other distributed applications. It collects and visualizes traces, supports trace search and query APIs, and helps teams investigate errors, performance bottlenecks, root causes, and service dependencies. Deployment can run through binaries or container images across web, Windows, macOS, Linux, API, and self-hosted environments.

Jaeger has a free open-source model rather than paid plan tiers. Its published capabilities include OpenTelemetry Protocol ingestion, Zipkin format compatibility, and integrations with Prometheus, Kubernetes, Docker, Kafka, Cassandra, Elasticsearch, OpenSearch, and ClickHouse. Teams can select multiple persistent storage backends, use Prometheus-compatible backend metrics, and apply adaptive, head-based, or tail-based sampling. These options make Jaeger a practical fit for organizations that want to shape their tracing architecture around an existing cloud-native ecosystem.

The main tradeoff is scope. Jaeger provides distributed trace collection, visualization, dependency and topology graphs, and service performance monitoring from trace-derived metrics, but its focus remains narrower than a full APM suite: it does not cover real user monitoring or log correlation. Self-hosting also places deployment, storage, scaling, and operational decisions with the engineering or platform team. Choose Jaeger when open-source tracing, Kubernetes support, and storage flexibility are priorities. Choose a broader APM product when one platform must combine tracing with RUM and log correlation.

Your product? Our editors can test Jaeger in depth and publish a review, labelled as paid · from $149/mo →

Jaeger pricing

Plans Free planFree Free to use — no paid tier required for the core job.
See plans on jaegertracing.io

Jaeger fact sheet

Free planYes
Paid fromFree
Distributed tracingYes
Transaction tracingYes
Dependency mappingYes
Real user monitoringNo
Log correlationNot verified
Deployment modelSelf_hosted
DeploymentCloud, Self-hosted
PlatformsWeb, Linux, Windows, macOS
SupportCommunity, Docs
Built forSmall business, Mid-market, Enterprise (editorial estimate)
Integrations8 integrations: OpenTelemetry, Zipkin, Cassandra, Elasticsearch, OpenSearch, Kafka …
PricingFree plan
Websitejaegertracing.io
Facts checked23 Sep 2026

Jaeger integrations

Jaeger lists 8 integrations on its own site.

  • OpenTelemetry
  • Zipkin
  • Cassandra
  • Elasticsearch
  • OpenSearch
  • Kafka
  • Badger
  • ClickHouse

Alternatives to Jaeger

See all Jaeger alternatives →

Also Ranked In

Jaeger is ranked in 5 of our directories.

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Featured on iTechGuides

Featured on iTechGuides — Jaeger 6.7/10

Jaeger is listed in our Application Performance Monitoring directory. Add the badge to your site — it links back to this page.

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Reviewed by iTechGuides Editors · Editorial team · Updated Oct 2026

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