Grafana Tempo
Shares rank 15 of 16 observability platforms by recommenders
Open-source trace database that people recommend for debugging faster than sifting through logs, especially self-hosted with Grafana. One critic finds it heavy to run.
Open-source trace database that people recommend for debugging faster than sifting through logs, especially self-hosted with Grafana. One critic finds it heavy to run.
6 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 5
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 83%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 5 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 4 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Open-source database designed for traces
“open-source databases specially designed for traces, such as Grafana Tempo or VictoriaTraces”
Comment from 22 Dec 2025 in “Logging sucks” Saves debugging time versus sifting logs
“the money saved in developer time when debugging an error, compared to having to sift through and connect logs, is easily an order of magnitude higher”
Comment from 21 Dec 2025 in “Logging sucks” Works well self-hosted with Grafana
“even if you can go a loooong way with a self-hosted Grafana + Tempo”
Comment from 27 Mar 2026 in “OpenTelemetry Profiles Enters Public Alpha” “OSS LGTM/P works good for me.”
Comment from 22 Aug 2026 in “OTel Isn't Going Well (and I Made a Spreadsheet About It)”
Other observability platforms people recommend
The four most recommended other observability platforms, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grafana | 71 | 41 | 63% | 11 | — | — |
| Prometheus | 48 | 24 | 67% | 11 | — | Approved |
| Datadog | 40 | 39 | 51% | 11 | — | — |
| Sentry | 31 | 30 | 51% | 11 | — | — |
| Grafana TempoThis page | 5 | 1 | 83% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
5 of the 6 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“OSS LGTM/P works good for me.”
“I don't like running heavy alternatives like Jaeger, Tempo”
“even if you can go a loooong way with a self-hosted Grafana + Tempo”
“open-source databases specially designed for traces, such as Grafana Tempo or VictoriaTraces”
“the money saved in developer time when debugging an error, compared to having to sift through and connect logs, is easily an order of magnitude higher”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.