Grafana Tempo vs Zipkin

Grafana Tempo vs Zipkin
Fact	Grafana Tempo	Zipkin
Language	Go	Java
Licence	AGPL-3.0	Apache-2.0
Stars	5.5k	17k
Latest	v3.1.0	3.6.1
Last push	2026-10-06	2026-08-06
Release cadence	about 1 day between releases	about 43 days between releases
Active contributors	26 commit authors on the default branch in the last 90 days	0 commit authors on the default branch in the last 90 days
Flags	none	none

How they relate

Grafana Tempo replaces Zipkin. Alternatives to Zipkin →
Full replacementStores traces in object storage and ingests Zipkin, Jaeger and OpenTelemetry formats.

v3.1.02026-09-29Grafana Tempo 3.1.0 adds query-based trace redaction, TraceQL metrics arithmetic and sampling-aware extrapolation, Kafk…
v3.1.0-rc.12026-09-17Grafana Tempo 3.1 adds query-based trace redaction, TraceQL metrics arithmetic and sampling-aware extrapolation, Kafka…pre-release
v3.0.32026-08-13operations: Update Go to 1.26.5 (CVE-2026-39822, CVE-2026-27145, CVE-2026-42504, CVE-2026-42505, CVE-2026-42507), googl…
v2.10.82026-08-13operations: Update Go to 1.26.5 (CVE-2026-39822, CVE-2026-27145, CVE-2026-42504, CVE-2026-42505, CVE-2026-42507), googl…
v2.9.52026-08-13operations: Update google.golang.org/grpc to v1.82.1 (GHSA-hrxh-6v49-42gf) and go.opentelemetry.io/otel to v1.44.0 (CVE…

3.6.12026-04-08Switch to recently released docker images
3.6.02026-03-23Zipkin 3.6.0 docker images are now based on JRE 25. Library bytecode are the same versions as before.
3.5.12025-04-27Update Spring Boot to 3.4.3
3.5.02025-02-16Zipkin now supports Apache Pulsar as a span transport, enabled by PULSAR_SERVICE_URL and documented here. Kudos to @Cod…
3.4.42025-02-16Update Spring Boot to 3.4.1 and other dependency updates

✓ signed The latest release, v3.1.0, carries a signature GitHub verified.

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unsigned The latest release, 3.6.1, carries no signature GitHub could verify.

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