| Instrumentation |
No instrumentation required |
Requires manual or auto-instrumentation (OpenTelemetry). |
| Technology Base |
eBPF (system-level observability) |
OpenTelemetry (application-level observability). |
| Traces |
Captures system-level and network traces automatically. |
Requires instrumentation for detailed traces. |
| Metrics |
System and application metrics from eBPF. |
Requires OpenTelemetry metrics exporters. |
| Logs |
Limited logs (e.g., HTTP payloads). |
Full log support when integrated with log pipelines. |
| Setup Complexity |
Easy setup, deploy agents on nodes. |
Requires instrumentation configuration. |
| Data Coverage |
System-level visibility (requests, containers, network). |
Fine-grained application-specific insights (business logic, custom spans). |
| Use Cases |
Troubleshooting system issues, quick setup. |
Comprehensive application monitoring with custom instrumentation. |
| Resource Overhead |
Low (eBPF is lightweight). |
Varies (depends on OpenTelemetry SDKs and backend). |