SHSelfHostIndex

Pinpoint APM vs Zipkin

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted monitoring & status options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
PI Pinpoint APM Application performance management for large-scale systems VS ZI Zipkin Distributed tracing system for latency troubleshooting
FeaturePinpoint APMZipkin
CategoryMonitoring & StatusMonitoring & Status
LicenseApache-2.0Apache-2.0
LanguageJavaJava
Setup difficultyHardMedium
Min. RAM2,048 MB512 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metaldocker, binary
GitHub stars★ 13,855★ 17,452
First released20152015
ReplacesNew Relic, DynatraceDatadog APM

Why pick each one

Choose Pinpoint APM if…

  • Detailed call-stack tracing
  • Good for large JVM systems
Pinpoint APM details

Choose Zipkin if…

  • Simple to run
  • Long-established project
Zipkin details

Frequently asked questions

Is Pinpoint APM or Zipkin better?

Zipkin is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler medium setup. Consider Pinpoint APM if its specific feature set fits your needs better.

Are Pinpoint APM and Zipkin free and open-source?

Yes. Pinpoint APM is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Zipkin under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Pinpoint APM and Zipkin with Docker?

Pinpoint APM: yes. Zipkin: yes.

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