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Continuous profiling tools with a free plan in 2026

Always-on CPU and memory profiles from production, so you can see which code paths cost the most. This list has 10 continuous profiling tools. Of these, 8 are open source, 10 have a free plan and 9 can be self-hosted. Checked by hand on 30 September 2026.

  1. 1

    Coroot

    Open source observability that uses eBPF to build service maps and collect metrics, logs, traces and profiles without code changes, with root-cause hints.

    Free plan Open source (Apache-2.0) Self-hosted APMMetricsTracesKubernetes
  2. 2

    Elastic Observability

    Logs, metrics, APM traces and synthetics built on Elasticsearch and Kibana, run yourself or on Elastic Cloud.

    Free plan Open source (AGPL-3.0-only OR SSPL-1.0 OR Elastic-2.0) Self-hosted LogsMetricsAPMTraces
  3. 3

    Google Cloud Profiler

    Google Cloud statistical profiler for Go, Java, Node.js and Python services that samples CPU and heap in production and shows flame graphs in the console. Google lists no charge for it.

    Free ProfilingCloud
  4. 4

    gProfiler

    Open source system-wide profiler from Intel (built by Granulate) that merges several language profilers into one flame graph per host; a local backend and UI are published separately.

    Free Open source (Apache-2.0) Self-hosted Profiling
  5. 5

    Grafana Pyroscope

    Continuous profiling database that collects CPU, memory and other profiles from running applications so you can find hot code paths over time.

    Free plan Open source (AGPL-3.0) Self-hosted APM
  6. 6

    OpenTelemetry eBPF Profiler

    Whole-system eBPF profiling agent donated to OpenTelemetry by Elastic. Profiles native, JVM, Python, Ruby, PHP, Node.js and Go code without instrumentation and exports via OTLP.

    Free Open source (Apache-2.0) Self-hosted ProfilingOpenTelemetry
  7. 7

    Parca

    Open source continuous profiler: an eBPF agent samples CPU stacks from every process on a host with no code changes, and the server stores profiles for querying as flame graphs over time.

    Free Open source (Apache-2.0) Self-hosted ProfilingKubernetes
  8. 8

    Perforator

    Continuous profiler open sourced by Yandex for large fleets: deploys to Kubernetes, collects low-overhead eBPF profiles cluster-wide, and can feed profile-guided optimization builds.

    Free Open source (Apache-2.0) Self-hosted ProfilingKubernetes
  9. 9

    Pixie

    Kubernetes observability that uses eBPF to capture service traffic, metrics and CPU profiles automatically; a CNCF sandbox project.

    Free Open source (Apache-2.0) Self-hosted KubernetesAPMMetrics
  10. 10

    zymtrace

    Self-hosted, cluster-wide profiler for AI training and inference fleets: continuous whole-system CPU profiling plus GPU and accelerator profiling for CUDA, ROCm and other chips.

    Free plan Free: CPU profiling on up to 5 machines Self-hosted ProfilingKubernetes

Side by side

Tool Pricing Free plan Open source Self-hosted Always-on in productionCPU profilesMemory or allocation profileseBPF, no code changesSeveral languagesFlame graph UIProfile comparisonLinked to tracesOpenTelemetry profiles
Coroot Free plan Yes Yes Yes YesYesYesYesYesYesYes--
Elastic Observability Free plan Yes Yes Yes YesYesNoYesYesYesYes-Yes
Google Cloud Profiler Free Yes No No YesYesYesYesYesYesYes--
gProfiler Free Yes Yes Yes YesYesYesYesYesYes---
Grafana Pyroscope Free plan Yes Yes Yes YesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYes
OpenTelemetry eBPF Profiler Free Yes Yes Yes YesYes-YesYesNoNo-Yes
Parca Free Yes Yes Yes YesYesYesYesYesYesYes--
Perforator Free Yes Yes Yes YesYes-YesYesYesYes--
Pixie Free Yes Yes Yes YesYes-YesYesYes---
zymtrace Free plan CPU profiling on up to 5 machines No Yes YesYesYesYesYesYesYes-Yes

Yes: confirmed in the tool's documentation. No: documented as not offered. -: not confirmed. Plans and prices change; check each tool's own site before you decide.

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