Need advice about which tool to choose?Ask the StackShare community!

OpenCensus

598
21
+ 1
0
Zipkin

194
151
+ 1
10
Add tool

OpenCensus vs Zipkin: What are the differences?

Key Differences between OpenCensus and Zipkin

1. Architecture: OpenCensus is a set of libraries that enables metrics and distributed traces collection from various platforms and languages, providing a vendor-neutral approach. On the other hand, Zipkin is a standalone distributed tracing system that consists of a collector, storage component, and user interface, primarily focused on providing distributed tracing capabilities.

2. Language Support: OpenCensus provides support for a wide range of programming languages, including Java, Go, Python, and more, making it suitable for multi-language environments. In contrast, Zipkin was initially developed for use with Java-based systems, although it now also has support for other languages through community contributions.

3. Integration: OpenCensus has built-in integrations with popular observability tools like Prometheus, Jaeger, and Stackdriver, allowing seamless data export and visualization. Zipkin, on the other hand, has limited out-of-the-box integrations and may require additional configuration or custom development to connect with other monitoring systems.

4. Data Model: OpenCensus uses a structured data model that allows users to define custom attributes and metadata for observed metrics and traces. This flexibility makes it easier to organize and represent application-specific information. In contrast, Zipkin follows a more standardized data model, which may be sufficient for many use cases but may lack customization options.

5. Performance Overhead: OpenCensus is designed to have minimal performance overhead by providing low-latency instrumentation libraries and efficient data collection mechanisms. Zipkin, being a separate system with a collector and storage components, may introduce additional network latency and resource utilization, depending on the deployment architecture.

6. Community Ecosystem: OpenCensus has gained significant traction and has a growing community of contributors, making it more likely to receive regular updates, bug fixes, and new features. While Zipkin also has an active community, it may have a comparatively smaller user base and community support.

In summary, OpenCensus is a vendor-neutral library that supports multiple languages, offers extensive integration options, a flexible data model, and minimal performance impact, while Zipkin is a standalone distributed tracing system with initial focus on Java, limited integrations, a standardized data model, potential performance overhead, and a relatively smaller community ecosystem.

Get Advice from developers at your company using StackShare Enterprise. Sign up for StackShare Enterprise.
Learn More
Pros of OpenCensus
Pros of Zipkin
    Be the first to leave a pro
    • 10
      Open Source

    Sign up to add or upvote prosMake informed product decisions

    - No public GitHub repository available -

    What is OpenCensus?

    It is a set of libraries for various languages that allow you to collect application metrics and distributed traces, then transfer the data to a backend of your choice in real time. This data can be analyzed by developers and admins to understand the health of the application and debug problems.

    What is Zipkin?

    It helps gather timing data needed to troubleshoot latency problems in service architectures. Features include both the collection and lookup of this data.

    Need advice about which tool to choose?Ask the StackShare community!

    Jobs that mention OpenCensus and Zipkin as a desired skillset
    Postman
    San Francisco, United States
    What companies use OpenCensus?
    What companies use Zipkin?
    See which teams inside your own company are using OpenCensus or Zipkin.
    Sign up for StackShare EnterpriseLearn More

    Sign up to get full access to all the companiesMake informed product decisions

    What tools integrate with OpenCensus?
    What tools integrate with Zipkin?

    Sign up to get full access to all the tool integrationsMake informed product decisions

    What are some alternatives to OpenCensus and Zipkin?
    Prometheus
    Prometheus is a systems and service monitoring system. It collects metrics from configured targets at given intervals, evaluates rule expressions, displays the results, and can trigger alerts if some condition is observed to be true.
    OpenTracing
    Consistent, expressive, vendor-neutral APIs for distributed tracing and context propagation.
    Jaeger
    Jaeger, a Distributed Tracing System
    Istio
    Istio is an open platform for providing a uniform way to integrate microservices, manage traffic flow across microservices, enforce policies and aggregate telemetry data. Istio's control plane provides an abstraction layer over the underlying cluster management platform, such as Kubernetes, Mesos, etc.
    New Relic
    The world’s best software and DevOps teams rely on New Relic to move faster, make better decisions and create best-in-class digital experiences. If you run software, you need to run New Relic. More than 50% of the Fortune 100 do too.
    See all alternatives