Grafana Tempo
Grafana Tempo is an open-source distributed tracing backend for high-volume trace ingestion, storage, search, and retrieval.
The current entry and its direct relationships are prominent; every other catalog technology and concept remains visible as muted background context.
16 directly connected nodes · 16 typed relationships · 202 muted catalog entries
List direct catalog relationships
- CatalogObservability Technology
- HierarchyGrafana Ecosystem
- RelatedGrafana LGTM Stack
- RelatedGrafana Alloy
- RelatedOpenTelemetry
- TelemetryTraces
- ArchitectureHost Observability
- ArchitectureMicroservices Observability
- ArchitectureCloud Observability
- ArchitectureOn-Premise Observability
- ArchitectureLinux
- FunctionAd-Hoc Functions
- FunctionQuerying
- FunctionData Collection
- FunctionTelemetry Storage
- FunctionTrace Analysis
Catalog position
Tempo is a focused distributed-tracing backend. It ingests spans, retains traces in object storage, and retrieves them by identifier or TraceQL search [1].
Shared technology-map evidence
The map assigns two of twelve families: trace ingestion/storage and trace search/retrieval [1]. Its reference cost is a small self-hosted compute, storage, and operator allowance. The bubble reflects 5,400-plus stars and 740-plus forks in the official repository when reviewed [2].
Research stance
Compare Tempo with tracing backends, not complete platforms. Challenge the stance when current primary evidence changes the boundary.
Technology-map evidence
How this tool is positioned
- Capability coverage
- 17% 2 of 12 families
- Reference cost
- $45per capability / month
- Market breadth
- 68/100 bounded evidence index
- Confidence
- documenteddocumented inputs
Trace ingestion and storage plus trace retrieval; cost is a small self-hosted operations allowance.
Axis sources: Tempo architecture · grafana/tempo
Source record
Bibliography
Grafana Labs, ‘Tempo architecture.’ [Online]. Available: https://grafana.com/docs/tempo/latest/introduction/architecture/. [Accessed: Aug. 14, 2026].
Documents trace ingestion object storage search and retrieval roles.Canonical source ↗Return to article ↑Grafana Labs, ‘grafana/tempo.’ GitHub. [Online]. Available: https://github.com/grafana/tempo. [Accessed: Aug. 14, 2026].
Public repository stars forks and activity used as community-breadth signals.Canonical source ↗Return to article ↑Grafana Labs, “Grafana Tempo project website.” [Online]. Available: https://grafana.com/oss/tempo/. [Accessed: Aug. 14, 2026].
Official price-list or product-site reference. Availability: free-open-source.Canonical source ↗Return to article ↑Grafana Labs, “Official GitHub repository.” GitHub. [Online]. Available: https://github.com/grafana/tempo. [Accessed: Aug. 14, 2026].
Known limits
Unresolved unknowns
- The reference cost is an editorial operating allowance; production object-storage and operations costs vary.
Public review
Discuss and correct
Comments are public. Proposed factual corrections must be incorporated into version-controlled research before they are treated as published.
Local preview does not have Giscus configured. Native comments and Giscus are never presented as competing primary systems on the same page.