SaaSipedia

Zipkin

zipkin.io
Observability & Monitoring
Weekend Project

A distributed tracing system

How to Replace Zipkin
Compare:vs Sumo Logicvs BugSnagvs Dynatrace

Overview

Zipkin is a distributed tracing system that helps gather timing data needed to troubleshoot latency problems in service architectures. It provides both collection and lookup of trace data, allowing users to query based on service, operation name, tags, and duration. The system includes a UI with dependency diagrams and performance analytics.

Features

20 features across 7 categories

Analytics(3)

Aggregate Behavior Analysis

Identifies aggregate behavior including error paths or calls to deprecated services

Error Detection

Identifies whether or not operations failed

Service Time Analysis

Summarizes percentage of time spent in a service

Also in: Hugging Face, Notion, Smartsheet

Core Functionality(2)

Trace Data Collection

Gathers timing data needed to troubleshoot latency problems in service architectures

Trace Lookup

Allows lookup of trace data with direct jump to trace ID from log files

Also in: Perforce Akana API Management Platform, BrightPay, Roam Research

Data Collection(5)

Apache ActiveMQ Data Reporting

Report trace data to Zipkin via Apache ActiveMQ

gRPC Data Reporting

Report trace data to Zipkin via gRPC

HTTP Data Reporting

Report trace data to Zipkin via HTTP

Kafka Data Reporting

Report trace data to Zipkin via Kafka

RabbitMQ Data Reporting

Report trace data to Zipkin via RabbitMQ

Also in: Insider CDP, Lytics, monday.com

Integration(1)

Tracer Configuration

Configuration of tracers or instrumentation libraries for application instrumentation

Also in: monday.com, Notion, Airtable

Search and Filtering(4)

Query by Duration

Query traces based on duration

Query by Operation Name

Query traces based on operation name

Query by Service

Query traces based on service attributes

Query by Tags

Query traces based on tags

Storage(3)

Apache Cassandra Backend

Persistently store data with Apache Cassandra backend

Elasticsearch Backend

Persistently store data with Elasticsearch backend

In-Memory Storage

Store trace data in-memory

Also in: Yandex Disk, Notion, Bitwarden

Visualization(2)

Dependency Diagram

Presents a diagram showing how many traced requests went through each application

Web UI

User interface for viewing and querying trace data

Also in: Ironclad, Obsidian, Smartsheet

Cost Calculator

Pricing data not available for Zipkin. Check their website for current pricing.

Build vs Buy

Should you build a Zipkin alternative or buy the subscription? Estimate based on 20 features.

Buy Zipkin

Better Value
Monthly costContact Sales
3-year totalVaries
Time to deployDays

Build Your Own

Development cost$12,000
Maintenance$180/mo
3-year total$18,480
Dev time~1 months

Buying Zipkin saves ~$18,480 over 3 years vs building.

Estimates based on 20 features and a BuildScore of 5/5. Actual costs vary.

Integrations

6 known integrations

Apache ActiveMQApache CassandraElasticsearchgRPCKafkaRabbitMQ