AWS X-Ray vs Sematext Tracing

AWS X-Ray is a cloud service for collecting and examining application request traces. A trace can show request and response details alongside calls to downstream AWS resources, microservices, databases and web APIs. X-Ray also uses trace data to map clients, front-end services and backend services, helping identify bottlenecks and latency spikes.

Applications can send traces through X-Ray SDKs or APIs, AWS Distro for OpenTelemetry, or CloudWatch Application Signals. AWS integrations can add tracing headers, transmit data, run the daemon or instrument requests. For Lambda, the daemon can record invocation details, while the SDK can trace outgoing calls and add annotations and metadata. The SDK samples requests by default, with configurable sampling rules. Trace data is retained for 30 days and encrypted at rest; AWS Identity and Access Management controls access. X-Ray has a free allowance of 100,000 traces recorded and the first 1,000,000 traces retrieved or scanned per month; additional usage is billed by usage. Beginning February 25, 2026, AWS limits X-Ray SDK and daemon releases to security fixes and recommends migration to OpenTelemetry.

Sematext Tracing is an OpenTelemetry-based distributed tracing service for monitoring and troubleshooting microservices and distributed systems. It accepts OTLP over HTTP or gRPC and works with OpenTelemetry Collectors, Jaeger, Zipkin, and compatible instrumentation. Users can filter traces by service, operation, latency, errors, or custom attributes, then inspect waterfalls and spans. Error rates, error types, and stack traces appear within the related request trace, while a Service Map depicts application dependencies and communication patterns. Performance views include latency breakdowns, P50/P95/P99 percentiles, RED metrics, and database query insights. Head-based sampling can retain errors and high-latency requests while sampling normal traffic at lower rates. Alerts can use latency thresholds, error rates, or custom span attributes. The product lists support for languages and frameworks including Java, Python, Go, .NET, Swift, Android, Spring, Django, Rails, React, Vue, and Svelte. Deployment options include Kubernetes, Docker, containers, or bare metal. Pricing is based on spans; the listed starting price is $17.10/mo (annual), and a 14-day trial is available without a credit card. There is no free plan.