Softwr

Technology · head to head

PagerDuty vs Zipkin

PagerDuty logo

PagerDuty

Technology

Real-time operations for real-time business

From
$21/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Zipkin logo

Zipkin

Cloud

Distributed tracing system for microservice latency

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Zipkin has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: PagerDuty aIOps, status pages, and live call routing are expensive add-ons not included in base plans, significantly increasing total cost; Zipkin less active development and smaller community momentum than Jaeger
  • They diverge on capability: PagerDuty covers Incident response, Zipkin covers Trace collection and search.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which PagerDuty and Zipkin actually diverge.

Attributes where PagerDuty and Zipkin differ
AttributePagerDutyZipkin
Starting price$21/monthFree
Pricing modelUnknownOpen source, no licence fee
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWeb, Ios, Android, ApiLinux, Docker, Kubernetes, Self-hosted
CategoryTechnologyCloud
Founded2009Unknown

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in PagerDuty

  • Incident response
  • On-call management
  • Alert grouping
  • Escalation policies
  • Mobile incident management
  • Postmortems
  • Status pages
  • Event intelligence

Only in Zipkin

  • Trace collection and search
  • Dependency diagram
  • Simple deployment
  • Pluggable storage

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

PagerDuty

  • Incident managementnot Zipkin
  • On-call schedulingnot Zipkin
  • Real-time alertingnot Zipkin
  • Service reliabilitynot Zipkin
  • Digital operationsnot Zipkin

Zipkin

  • Adding distributed tracing quickly without standing up heavy infrastructurenot PagerDuty
  • Java and Spring Boot estates, where instrumentation support is long-establishednot PagerDuty
  • Small deployments where Jaeger is more than the problem requiresnot PagerDuty

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

PagerDuty

  • AIOps, status pages, and live call routing are expensive add-ons not included in base plans, significantly increasing total cost
  • Complex escalation policies require workarounds for scheduling patterns beyond basic weekly rotations
  • 5-user minimum requirement forces costs even for small teams, with forced Business tier upgrades adding $12,000+ annually for larger teams

Zipkin

  • Less active development and smaller community momentum than Jaeger
  • Fewer features: sampling, storage options and UI are all more limited
  • The interface is dated and slower to work with on large trace volumes
  • Tracing alone still leaves metrics and logs in separate tools during an incident

Pricing, plan by plan

PagerDuty

$21/month

No published plan breakdown. See the PagerDuty review.

Zipkin

Free
  • ZipkinFree
    • Full functionality
    • No usage limits
    • Community support

Which should you pick?

Choose PagerDuty if

  • You need incident response.
  • You work on Web, Ios, Android, Api.
  • You also want on-call management.
PagerDuty review

Choose Zipkin if

  • You need trace collection and search.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Self-hosted.
  • You also want dependency diagram.
Zipkin review

Questions people ask

Is PagerDuty or Zipkin better?
Neither clearly leads. PagerDuty starts at $21/month and Zipkin at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, PagerDuty or Zipkin?
Zipkin has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $21/month for PagerDuty and Free for Zipkin.
Does PagerDuty or Zipkin run on more platforms?
PagerDuty runs on Web, Ios, Android, Api. Zipkin runs on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Self-hosted.
Can I use Zipkin for free?
Yes. Zipkin has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. PagerDuty starts at $21/month.
What is PagerDuty best used for?
PagerDuty is most often used for incident management, on-call scheduling, real-time alerting, service reliability. Of those, incident management and on-call scheduling are not what Zipkin is typically brought in for.
What can PagerDuty do that Zipkin cannot?
PagerDuty covers Incident response, On-call management, Alert grouping, Escalation policies. Zipkin covers Trace collection and search, Dependency diagram, Simple deployment, Pluggable storage.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

PagerDuty: What is the minimum cost to use PagerDuty?

PagerDuty requires a minimum of 5 users per account. The Professional plan starts at $21 per user per month ($105/month minimum), with annual billing providing 16% discount.

Source
Zipkin: Is Zipkin free?

Yes, open source with no licence fee.

PagerDuty: What integrations does PagerDuty support?

PagerDuty integrates with 750+ monitoring, ticketing, and collaboration tools including Datadog, Slack, Jira, ServiceNow, New Relic, and Nagios.

Source
Zipkin: Zipkin or Jaeger?

Jaeger has more momentum, more features and CNCF backing. Zipkin is lighter and quicker to stand up, and remains well supported in the Java and Spring ecosystem.

PagerDuty: How much does AIOps cost in PagerDuty?

AIOps Intelligence is sold separately as an add-on starting at $699 per month, and is not included in any of the base plans.

Source
Zipkin: Does Zipkin work with OpenTelemetry?

Yes. OpenTelemetry can export to Zipkin, which is now the usual way to instrument for it.

Share

Related pages

More on PagerDuty

More on Zipkin

Keep looking

Other head to heads