avuru obs vs. the alternatives
Most teams already run something for telemetry. This section is an honest look at how avuru obs compares to the tools you're most likely replacing — and how to migrate from each without a rewrite.
Avuru Obs combines traces, logs and metrics in ClickHouse, with eBPF discovery for supported workloads and OTLP ingestion for existing instrumentation. CPU profiling is experimental and opt-in. Green, cost, mesh, AI and MCP are optional; outgoing integrations follow the destinations you configure.
The latest verified public release is v0.16.0 (7 September 2026). Some documentation follows development trunk: check feature status and the published releases for version-specific availability.
Evaluate the capabilities you actually need with a test service and your collection pipeline. A backend migration does not automatically move historical storage, dashboards, alert rules or access policies. Use the OTLP adoption guide to validate a reversible path.
At a glance
| You run today | Category | What avuru obs changes | Read |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jaeger | Distributed tracing | Adds logs (+ metrics/profiling) in one store; eBPF map with no SDK | vs Jaeger |
| Grafana stack (Loki/Tempo/Mimir) | Assembled OSS stack | One engine and one UI instead of four systems to operate | vs the Grafana stack |
| Prometheus | Metrics | Auto RED metrics correlated with traces & logs | vs Prometheus |
| Datadog / New Relic | Commercial SaaS APM | Self-hosted, no proprietary agents, no per-host bill — plus per-service energy & gCO₂e | vs Datadog |
| Sentry | Error tracking | Issues derived from the OTLP you already send, plus a drop-in Sentry SDK DSN — no per-event bill | vs Sentry |
| GlitchTip | Error tracking | Same Sentry ingest protocol, but errors unified with traces, logs & an eBPF map | vs GlitchTip |
| DeepFlow | eBPF + ClickHouse platform | Complete first-party UI and native error tracking on the same eBPF/ClickHouse base | vs DeepFlow |
| Coroot | eBPF + ClickHouse platform | Single ClickHouse for every signal, plus error tracking as a first-class module | vs Coroot |
| SigNoz | OTel + ClickHouse platform | Same OTel/ClickHouse base, plus a zero-code eBPF map, continuous profiling and no open-core gating | vs SigNoz |
| Apache SkyWalking | Language-agent APM | One ClickHouse and universal SQL instead of BanyanDB, plus a zero-code eBPF map | vs SkyWalking |
How migration works, in general
Because avuru obs is a drop-in OTLP backend, migrating from any OpenTelemetry-compatible source is the same three moves:
- Install avuru obs (
helm install) alongside what you run today. - Repoint your OTLP exporter (or OTel Collector / Grafana Alloy) at the avuru
gateway—:4318(HTTP) or:4317(gRPC). You can dual-export and run both in parallel while you validate. - Once the data looks right, cut over and decommission the old backend.
Full steps live in the OTLP bridge guide. Each page below adds the specifics for that tool.
:::tip Ready to try it? The fastest way to compare is side by side — follow the installation guide and point one service at it. :::