HowToBuild- License
- Apache-2.0
- Cost
- Open Source
- Self-host
- Yes
Overview
OpenTelemetry supplies APIs, SDKs, semantic conventions, and a collector for traces, metrics, and logs.
Why it is interesting
Why pay attention
It separates application instrumentation from the observability backend selected later.
Editorial status
Recommended for active evaluation.
Best for
- Teams that want portable instrumentation
- Services adopting distributed tracing
Not ideal for
- Teams seeking a complete hosted monitoring product by itself
Open source & pricing
Open Source
The project is free and self-hostable; storage and analysis backends may cost money.
GitHub momentum
★ 4,340
- Last 7 days
- +3
- Last 30 days
- Window incomplete
- Evidence
- 9/10/2026–9/17/2026 · weekly window
Included in stacks
See it in context.
Sources checked
Canonical project facts and open-source licensemaintainer · Sep 4, 2026