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Open source continuous profiling tools in 2026

Always-on CPU and memory profiles from production, so you can see which code paths cost the most. This list has 8 continuous profiling tools. Of these, 8 are open source, 8 have a free plan and 8 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

    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
  4. 4

    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
  5. 5

    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
  6. 6

    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
  7. 7

    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
  8. 8

    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

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
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---

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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