Grafana Tempo
An open source, easy-to-use, and high-scale distributed tracing backend.
Overview
Grafana Tempo is an open-source distributed tracing backend designed for high scale and cost-efficiency. It integrates seamlessly with Grafana, Prometheus, and Loki to provide a complete observability solution. Tempo requires only object storage to operate, making it simple to manage.
✨ Key Features
- High scale, low-cost trace storage
- Deep integration with Grafana, Prometheus, and Loki
- Ingests common tracing protocols (OpenTelemetry, Jaeger, Zipkin)
- Trace discovery by ID
- No-index architecture
🎯 Key Differentiators
- Massive scale with low operational cost
- Seamless integration with the Grafana ecosystem (Loki, Mimir)
- Simplicity of operation (only requires object storage)
Unique Value: Provides a highly scalable and cost-effective way to store and query traces, completing the observability picture for users of the Grafana stack.
🎯 Use Cases (4)
✅ Best For
- Efficient and scalable trace storage.
- Feeding trace data into Grafana for visualization and analysis.
💡 Check With Vendor
Verify these considerations match your specific requirements:
- Teams needing an all-in-one, managed APM solution
- Users who require advanced search and analytics on trace data without relying on logs or metrics
🏆 Alternatives
Focuses on being a simple, scalable backend for traces, whereas other tools like Jaeger or Elastic APM bundle more analytics and UI features, which Tempo offloads to Grafana.
💻 Platforms
🔌 Integrations
🛟 Support Options
- ✓ Email Support
- ✓ Dedicated Support (Enterprise tier)
🔒 Compliance & Security
💰 Pricing
✓ 14-day free trial
Free tier: Open-source version is free. Grafana Cloud has a free tier.
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