OpenTelemetry
Vendor-neutral observability framework for traces, metrics, and logs — the CNCF standard for instrumenting cloud-native applications.
Apache 2.0
TypeScript / Python
Why OpenTelemetry?
You want observability data that isn't locked to a single vendor
Instrumenting microservices with distributed traces across multiple languages
Feeding telemetry into Datadog, Jaeger, Grafana, or any OTel-compatible backend
Signal Breakdown
What drives the Trust Score
Download Trend
Last 12 months
Tradeoffs & Caveats
Know before you commitSimple single-service apps — Sentry alone may be sufficient
Teams without an observability backend to receive OTel data
Pricing
Free tier & paid plans
Open source, free to use
Free & open-source
Alternative Tools
Other options worth considering
The leading error tracking and performance monitoring platform. Sentry captures exceptions, stack traces, and performance issues in real time across web, mobile, and backend. Essential for any production application.
Open-source APM and observability platform built on OpenTelemetry — metrics, traces, and logs with a Datadog-like UI you can self-host.
Often Used Together
Complementary tools that pair well with OpenTelemetry
Learning Resources
Docs, videos, tutorials, and courses
Get Started
Repository and installation options
View on GitHub
github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-js
npm install @opentelemetry/sdk-node @opentelemetry/auto-instrumentations-nodepip install opentelemetry-sdk opentelemetry-instrumentationQuick Start
Copy and adapt to get going fast
import { NodeSDK } from '@opentelemetry/sdk-node';
import { getNodeAutoInstrumentations } from '@opentelemetry/auto-instrumentations-node';
const sdk = new NodeSDK({
traceExporter: new OTLPTraceExporter({ url: 'http://localhost:4318/v1/traces' }),
instrumentations: [getNodeAutoInstrumentations()],
});
sdk.start();Community Notes
Real experiences from developers who've used this tool