Apache Zipkin

aid: apache-zipkin
name: Apache Zipkin
description: Apache Zipkin is a distributed tracing system that helps gather timing data needed to troubleshoot latency problems
  in service architectures. It manages both the collection and lookup of tracing data through a collector and query service.
  Zipkin provides a REST API, web UI, and multiple storage backends (Cassandra, Elasticsearch, MySQL). It supports the B3
  propagation format and is compatible with OpenZipkin instrumentation libraries. Originally created at Twitter, it is now
  maintained as an open-source project.
type: Index
accessModel:
  pricing: freemium
  onboarding: unknown
  trial: false
  try_now: false
  public: false
  label: Freemium
  confidence: medium
  source:
  - plans
  generated: '2026-07-22'
  method: derived
position: Consumer
access: 3rd-Party
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/icons/apache-zipkin.png
tags:
- Distributed Tracing
- Microservices
- Monitoring
- Observability
- Open Source
created: '2026-03-16'
modified: '2026-04-19'
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/apache-zipkin/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
specificationVersion: '0.19'
apis:
- aid: apache-zipkin:apache-zipkin-autocomplete-api
  name: Apache Zipkin autocomplete API
  description: Tag key/value autocompletion
  humanURL: https://zipkin.io/zipkin-api/
  tags:
  - autocomplete
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/apache-zipkin-autocomplete-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://zipkin.io/zipkin-api/
- aid: apache-zipkin:apache-zipkin-services-api
  name: Apache Zipkin services API
  description: Service discovery and dependency links
  humanURL: https://zipkin.io/zipkin-api/
  tags:
  - services
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/apache-zipkin-services-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://zipkin.io/zipkin-api/
- aid: apache-zipkin:apache-zipkin-spans-api
  name: Apache Zipkin spans API
  description: Ingest spans and query span names
  humanURL: https://zipkin.io/zipkin-api/
  tags:
  - spans
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/apache-zipkin-spans-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://zipkin.io/zipkin-api/
- aid: apache-zipkin:apache-zipkin-traces-api
  name: Apache Zipkin traces API
  description: Query trace data
  humanURL: https://zipkin.io/zipkin-api/
  tags:
  - traces
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/apache-zipkin-traces-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://zipkin.io/zipkin-api/
common:
- type: AgenticAccess
  url: agentic-access/apache-zipkin-agentic-access.yml
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/apache-zipkin-domain-security.yml
- type: GitHubRepository
  url: https://github.com/openzipkin/zipkin
- type: Documentation
  url: https://zipkin.io/pages/documentation.html
- type: Portal
  url: https://zipkin.io/
- type: GettingStarted
  url: https://zipkin.io/pages/quickstart.html
- type: ReleaseNotes
  url: https://github.com/openzipkin/zipkin/releases
- type: Support
  url: https://gitter.im/openzipkin/zipkin
- type: TermsOfService
  url: https://www.apache.org/licenses/
- type: SDKs
  url: https://pypi.org/project/py_zipkin/
  title: Python SDK
- type: SDKs
  url: https://search.maven.org/search?q=io.zipkin
  title: Java SDK
- type: Features
  data:
  - name: Distributed Trace Collection
    description: Collect timing and metadata for distributed service calls with B3 propagation headers.
  - name: Trace Query and Visualization
    description: Web UI and REST API for searching and visualizing distributed traces with latency analysis.
  - name: Service Dependency Graph
    description: Automatic service call graph generation from collected trace data.
  - name: Multiple Storage Backends
    description: Cassandra, Elasticsearch, and MySQL storage backends for different scale requirements.
  - name: OpenTelemetry Compatible
    description: Accepts OTLP/Zipkin spans from OpenTelemetry instrumented services.
  - name: B3 Propagation
    description: Standard B3 trace propagation headers for distributed context passing across services.
- type: UseCases
  data:
  - name: Microservices Latency Troubleshooting
    description: Identify bottlenecks and slow service calls in distributed architectures.
  - name: Service Dependency Mapping
    description: Automatically discover and visualize service-to-service call graphs.
  - name: Performance Regression Detection
    description: Compare trace data before and after deployments to detect performance regressions.
  - name: Root Cause Analysis
    description: Follow distributed call chains to identify the root cause of errors and failures.
- type: Integrations
  data:
  - name: Spring Cloud Sleuth
    description: Spring Boot auto-instrumentation for trace propagation and Zipkin reporting.
  - name: Brave
    description: Java instrumentation library (Brave) for adding Zipkin tracing to Java applications.
  - name: Elasticsearch
    description: Elasticsearch storage backend for scalable trace data storage and search.
  - name: Apache Cassandra
    description: Cassandra storage backend for high-volume trace data.
  - name: OpenTelemetry
    description: OpenTelemetry Zipkin exporter for reporting OTLP traces to Zipkin.
  - name: Kafka
    description: Kafka collector for ingesting spans from high-throughput microservice architectures.
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: info@apievangelist.com