The first OpenTelemetry-native observability tool

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What is OpenTelemetry?

Observability requires high-quality telemetry data, such as traces, metrics, and logs. OpenTelemetry (a project from the Cloud Native Computing Foundation) is a project to make this data a built-in feature of cloud-native systems. It’s a standards-compliant and broadly-supported set of APIs, SDKs, and tools that allow teams to easily instrument, collect, and export rich telemetry data.



What are the benefits of OpenTelemetry?

  • No vendor lock-in: OpenTelemetry supports over 40 different observability and monitoring tools, giving you the freedom and flexibility to use your data how you want. Rather than expensive all-in-one platforms, you can choose where your data goes, how long you keep it, and how you use it.
  • Standards-based and open, forever: OpenTelemetry is part of the CNCF, the organization that supports Kubernetes, and is licensed under Apache2. It works with W3C standards, like trace-context. You don’t have to worry about it suddenly changing hands, becoming proprietary, or not working with your cloud-native stack.
  • Works with everything: OpenTelemetry supports everything from Java to Ruby, frontend to backend. It can capture trace, metric, and log data from applications and infrastructure, and is increasingly a built-in feature of many popular software packages and languages like Quarkus, Next.JS, or Rust.
  • We have hundreds of teams now using OpenTelemetry and Honeycomb.

    We’re able to bring a different mentality in the way we run and manage our production systems. We were able to really help our engineering teams and change the culture.

    Rich Anakor

    Chief Solutions Architect

    Honeycomb makes OpenTelemetry better

    We’ve supported and contributed to OpenTelemetry since the beginning, and we’re the first major observability tool to unify OpenTelemetry traces, metrics, and logs. This means reduced tool sprawl, faster detection of issues, and opinionated workflows that turn OpenTelemetry data into observability value.

    One-Click Board Templates

    Board templates give you one-click insights into applications using .NET, Java, Go, and Python OpenTelemetry instrumentation.

    Opinionated Documentation

    Learn how to send OpenTelemetry data to Honeycomb, and find guides on how to make it work better for you.

    Get Quick Insights

    BubbleUp allows you to seamlessly pivot between attributes on metrics, traces, or logs and quickly discover outliers, anomalies, and pinpoint failures.

    Cloud-Native Workloads

    Honeycomb for Kubernetes unifies Kubernetes metrics and events with your application traces to provide clear understanding of your cloud-native applications.

    The OpenTelemetry experts

    We’ve helped hundreds of teams break free from vendor lock-in using OpenTelemetry. Honeycomb works out of the box with your existing metrics, logs, and traces through the OpenTelemetry Collector—no code changes required! We’re also committed to giving back to the community through our dedicated contributing engineers.

    Want to learn more? Check out our resources and join the community.

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