Coroot vs Uptrace

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?
FeatureCorootUptrace
Deploy effortUnder-an-hour setupUnder-an-hour setup
Health score92 · Excellent88 · Excellent
CategoryMonitoring & StatusMonitoring & Status
LicenseApache-2.0BSL-1.1
LanguageGoGo
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM1,024 MB512 MB
Deploymentdocker, kubernetes, helmdocker, kubernetes, binary
GitHub stars★ 7,932★ 4,290
First released20222021
ReplacesDatadog, New RelicDatadog, New Relic

What are Coroot and Uptrace?

Coroot

Coroot is an open-source observability tool that uses eBPF to gather metrics, logs, traces, and profiles with zero instrumentation. It automatically surfaces service maps, SLOs, and root-cause insights.

  • eBPF zero-instrumentation telemetry
  • Automatic service maps
  • Built-in SLO tracking
  • Root-cause analysis

Read the full Coroot guide →

Uptrace

Uptrace is an open-source observability tool that uses OpenTelemetry to collect distributed traces, metrics, and logs. It stores data in ClickHouse and provides a clean UI for analyzing application performance.

  • Distributed tracing
  • Metrics and logs support
  • ClickHouse storage
  • OpenTelemetry-native

Read the full Uptrace guide →

Coroot vs Uptrace: key differences

Both projects are written in Go. Licensing differs — Apache-2.0 for Coroot versus BSL-1.1 for Uptrace. Uptrace is the lighter option, starting around 512 MB of RAM against 1,024 MB for Coroot.

Why pick each one

Choose Coroot if…

  • No code changes required
  • Insightful out of the box

Watch out for

  • Needs a recent Linux kernel
  • Resource use grows with scale
Coroot details

Choose Uptrace if…

  • Efficient ClickHouse backend
  • Easy to deploy

Watch out for

  • BSL license restrictions
  • Smaller community
Uptrace details

Frequently asked questions

Is Coroot or Uptrace better?

Neither is universally better. Coroot has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are Coroot and Uptrace free and open-source?

Yes. Coroot is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Uptrace under BSL-1.1. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Coroot and Uptrace with Docker?

Coroot: yes. Uptrace: yes.

Which is lighter on resources, Coroot or Uptrace?

Uptrace has the smaller minimum footprint at 512 MB of RAM, compared to about 1,024 MB for Coroot. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.

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