bpftrace vs Metoro Kubernetes Profiling
bpftrace
bpftrace.orgMetoro Kubernetes Profiling
metoro.ioSide by side
| Figure | bpftrace | Metoro Kubernetes Profiling |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $20/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 6 |
| Spec score · eBPF Observability Tools | 8.6 (#4) | 8.8 (#3) |
| Purpose | bpftrace is a high-level tracing language for Linux for writing observability-based eBPF programs. | Metoro continuously profiles Kubernetes workloads using an eBPF sampling profiler running at the kernel level. |
| Security | As a security measure, bpftrace refuses to import files from world-writable directories. | Metoro states SOC 2 Type II certification, TLS 1.3 in transit, AES-256 at rest, SSO/SAML, RBAC and audit logging for Cloud. |
| Support | The project README lists GitHub Discussions, the issue tracker, monthly office hours, and Discord as ways to get help or participate. | The Scale plan includes support via Slack with Metoro engineers, while Enterprise includes 24/7 white-glove support and onboarding. |
Plans
Metoro Kubernetes Profiling
- HobbyFree
- Cloud$20 a month
- Scale$20 a month
- BYOCPrice not published
- EnterprisePriced on request
- On PremPrice not published
In their own words
bpftrace
bpftrace is a free, high-level tracing language and general-purpose Linux tracing tool built on eBPF. It supports kernel and user-space dynamic tracing, perf events, USDT, uprobes, and tracepoints. Its language draws from awk, C, DTrace, and SystemTap. Programs can come from files, inline -e input, or standard input, and the standard library supplies builtins, functions, macros, and map-value functions. LLVM compiles scripts to eBPF bytecode; libbpf interacts with Linux’s BPF subsystem, with bcc also used in the implementation. Scripts can import bpftrace files, C headers, BPF C source, and supported directory files. Unsafe helpers require --unsafe, and imports from world-writable directories are refused. The default probe maximum is 1,024; increasing it can raise memory use, startup time, overhead, or risk freezes and crashes. Supported architectures include x86_64, arm64, s390x, arm32, loongarch64, mips64, ppc64, and riscv64. Some features need kernel headers; vmlinux BTF needs Linux 4.18 or later with CONFIG_DEBUG_INFO_BTF enabled.
Metoro Kubernetes Profiling
Metoro Kubernetes Profiling continuously profiles Kubernetes workloads with an eBPF sampler running at the kernel level. It creates interactive flame graphs that can be grouped by service, pod, or container and filtered by cluster, namespace, deployment, or Kubernetes label. Metoro lists Go, Python, C++, C, Rust, Node.js, and Java support, with host-level frames for other runtimes. Profiling does not require SDKs, code changes, language agents, restarts, or rebuilds, and can cover third-party containers and vendor workloads. Profiles connect to Metoro APM traces, logs, metrics, pod state, and deployment context. Installation uses Helm, with Cloud, BYOC, and on-premises deployment options. The free Hobby plan includes one cluster, one user, and two nodes with 28-day retention. Scale costs $20 USD per node per month, plus $0.20 per GB above 100GB per node. Enterprise pricing is contract-based and offers custom retention and SLAs. eBPF requires Linux kernel 4.18 or newer.