Grafana Tempo vs Jaeger
Self-host pick — both replace Honeycomb (Distributed tracing / observability).
Both Grafana Tempo and Jaeger self-host as a replacement for Honeycomb (Distributed tracing / observability). Pick Grafana Tempo if you want a AGPL-licensed codebase (AGPL-3.0); pick Jaeger for Apache (Apache-2.0). Both run in roughly the same cost bracket — $15-50/mo vps — s3-backed for trace storage keeps cost predictable vs $5/mo vps for dev; $50+/mo for production with elasticsearch storage.
| Grafana Tempoopen-source | Jaegeropen-source | |
|---|---|---|
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Setup time | 30min docker-compose (Tempo + Grafana + collector) | 10min docker run (`all-in-one`) for dev; 1h for production with Cassandra/Elasticsearch backend |
| Monthly cost | $15-50/mo VPS — S3-backed for trace storage keeps cost predictable. | $5/mo VPS for dev; $50+/mo for production with Elasticsearch storage. |
| GitHub | grafana/tempo | jaegertracing/jaeger |
| Replaces | Honeycomb | Honeycomb |
Good fit for
Grafana Tempo
Teams already invested in Grafana that want traces in the same pane as metrics and logs.
Weak at:No first-class anomaly-explore UX; you build dashboards manually.
Jaeger
Pure trace exploration — span search, dependency graphs, latency histograms — without the metric/log surface.
Weak at:No metrics or logs; no SLO management; you'll pair with Prometheus and Loki for the rest.
In a terminal? npx -y github:SolvoHQ/os-alt-cli honeycomb prints Honeycomb's self-host options including both —
how the CLI works →
FAQ
Which is easier to self-host, Grafana Tempo or Jaeger?
Grafana Tempo: 30min docker-compose (Tempo + Grafana + collector). Jaeger: 10min docker run (`all-in-one`) for dev; 1h for production with Cassandra/Elasticsearch backend.
What does each cost to run?
Grafana Tempo: $15-50/mo VPS — S3-backed for trace storage keeps cost predictable.. Jaeger: $5/mo VPS for dev; $50+/mo for production with Elasticsearch storage.. Both projects are free and open source.
Do Grafana Tempo and Jaeger replace the same SaaS?
Yes — both are open-source alternatives to Honeycomb.