orb8 vs Parca
orb8
github.com
Parca
parca.devSide by side
| Figure | orb8 | Parca |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | — | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 0 | 1 |
| Spec score · eBPF Observability Tools | 7.1 (#23) | 8.1 (#9) |
| Deployment | The agent is deployed as a Kubernetes DaemonSet and requires Linux kernel 5.8 or later with BTF enabled. | The project documents installation using binaries, containers, Kubernetes, and Snaps. |
| Maker | The GitHub profile for Ignoramuss identifies the account holder as Mayank. | Polar Signals says it was founded in 2020. |
| Security | The documented DaemonSet uses specific Linux capabilities and is described as not running in privileged mode. | The project says the Agent source is open source, it is written in Go, and its binaries and container images are fully reproducible; the Agent needs privileged access to load eBPF programs. |
Plans
In their own words
Parca
Parca is a self-hosted profiling system that collects and stores CPU, memory, I/O, and other profiles for queries over time. Its eBPF-based Parca Agent captures user-space and kernel-space stack traces, while the system also accepts valid pprof-formatted profiles pushed through gRPC or pulled from targets over HTTP. Users can query by labels, compare dimensions such as processes or code versions, and view profiles in the web interface with Icicle Graphs. A Grafana plugin can display profiles stored in Parca. The agent supports automatic profiling for languages including C, C++, Go, Rust, .NET, Deno, Erlang, Java, Julia, Node.js, Wasmtime, PHP, Ruby, and Python. Installation options include binaries, containers, Kubernetes, and Snaps. Parca is open source under the Apache 2 License and is free. The agent requires Linux kernel 4.18 or newer and privileged access to load eBPF programs. Parca says it receives profiling statistics and function-name metadata, not binaries or source code.