Parca vs YourKit Java Profiler
Parca
parca.devYourKit Java Profiler
yourkit.comSide by side
| Figure | Parca | YourKit Java Profiler |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | — |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 10 |
| Spec score · Profiling Software | 8.2 (#6) | 7.5 (#19) |
| Security | 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. | Communication between the profiler UI and agent always uses SSL-encrypted TCP/IP, and the UI can build SSH tunnels into closed private networks. |
| Support | Polar Signals offers paid support for users of Parca’s open-source project. | Support includes email assistance with unlimited incidents, installation help, product usage help, and free upgrades during the support period. |
Plans
YourKit Java Profiler
- Five-seat annual subscription advanced supportPrice not published
- Five-seat annual subscription basic supportPrice not published
- Five-seat perpetual advanced supportPrice not published
- Five-seat perpetual basic supportPrice not published
- Single-seat annual subscription advanced supportPrice not published
- Single-seat annual subscription basic supportPrice not published
- Single-seat perpetual advanced supportPrice not published
- Single-seat perpetual basic supportPrice not published
- Single-user floating annual subscription advanced supportPrice not published
- Single-user floating annual subscription basic supportPrice not published
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.
YourKit Java Profiler
YourKit Java Profiler analyzes Java applications and servers locally or remotely in development, testing and production. CPU results can be viewed as call trees or hotspot lists, and a what-if feature estimates optimization gains without another profiling run. Memory views map the heap and object graph, including the memory retained by each object. More than 40 inspections flag issues such as leaked webapps, duplicated objects, unclosed SQL statements, inefficient collections and I/O operations. The profiler also identifies slow SQL queries and HTTP requests and supports databases including MongoDB, Cassandra and HBase. Plugins for Eclipse, IntelliJ IDEA and NetBeans link profiling results to source code. Remote profiling needs SSH access, while UI-to-agent communication uses SSL-encrypted TCP/IP. Downloads are available for Linux, macOS and Windows; APIs, command-line tools and export formats support automation. A free plan and a paid model are listed, and an evaluation license can be requested for up to 15 days. The pricing note gives a starting price of $99/user/yr.