AWS X-Ray vs Uptrace
AWS X-Ray
aws.amazon.com
Uptrace
uptrace.devSide by side
| Figure | AWS X-Ray | Uptrace |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $39/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 3 | 6 |
| Spec score · Distributed Tracing Tools | 9.0 (#2) | 8.6 (#5) |
| Documentation depth | The API reference was updated October 7, 2026 and documents trace-management and service-map operations. | The guides index lists 50 OpenTelemetry integration guides spanning Go, Python, JavaScript, Java, PHP, Ruby, Elixir, databases, infrastructure and AI. |
| Retention | X-Ray trace data is retained for 30 days. | Uptrace Cloud keeps data for 4 weeks by default, with cold storage options for up to 100 weeks. |
| Self-hosting | The daemon can run locally, on premises or on other AWS services, while uploading segments to the hosted X-Ray service. | A self-hosted installation runs the Uptrace binary with ClickHouse for telemetry, PostgreSQL for metadata and Redis for caching and background jobs. |
| What it does | AWS X-Ray collects request traces and lets teams inspect downstream AWS resources, microservices, databases and web APIs to find performance and error causes. | Uptrace is an OpenTelemetry-based observability and APM platform combining distributed traces, logs, metrics, dashboards and alerting. |
Plans
Uptrace
- CommunityFree
- Uptrace CloudFree
- Starter$39 a month
- Team$199 a month
- Business$499 a month
- EnterprisePriced on request
In their own words
AWS X-Ray
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.
Uptrace
Uptrace is an OpenTelemetry-native observability platform that unifies traces, metrics and logs. It provides UQL for querying spans and logs and a PromQL-compatible engine for metrics. Dashboards can combine spans, events, logs and metrics, configured in the UI or YAML. Metric and error monitors can send notifications through email, Slack, PagerDuty and other channels. Uptrace lists Grafana integration as a Prometheus and Tempo data source and includes a built-in MCP server for AI assistants. It offers cloud and self-hosted deployment, with Docker, Ansible and Kubernetes installation options; precompiled binaries are listed for Linux, macOS and Windows. Uptrace Cloud retains data for four weeks by default, with cold storage options for up to 100 weeks. The free Cloud plan includes 50 GB per month and 5,000 timeseries per month, while Community is free with unlimited usage and 14 days of retention. Paid plans start at $39 a month. The privacy policy says data in transit and database backups are encrypted, but most live database data is not encrypted at rest.