What is Pinpoint used for?

Pinpoint is an open-source APM platform that traces transactions across distributed services to show system topology and code-level behavior, for Java, PHP and Python apps. It is a good fit for finding bottlenecks in microservice requests, mapping the topology of distributed systems and monitoring Java applications in production.

Is Pinpoint open source?

Yes. Pinpoint is open source under the Apache-2.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at pinpoint-apm/pinpoint and is written mainly in Java.

Yes. Pinpoint is open source, so the software itself is free to use.

Can I self-host Pinpoint?

Yes. Pinpoint can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.

What is Pinpoint an alternative to?

Pinpoint is an open-source alternative to Dynatrace, AppDynamics, Datadog and New Relic. Other open-source alternatives to Dynatrace include SigNoz, Coroot and Uptrace.

Is Pinpoint actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to Pinpoint was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is v3.1.1, published on 2 October 2026. The project has 14k stars on GitHub.

Pinpoint: open-source alternative to Dynatrace, AppDynamics

About Pinpoint

Pinpoint is an APM tool, short for application performance management, built for large-scale distributed systems. Inspired by Google's Dapper, it traces transactions as they move across the components of a distributed application so teams can see how the system is structured and where problems or bottlenecks arise.

Its ServerMap visualizes application topology and how components connect, while real-time monitoring and code-level visibility into each transaction help diagnose slow or failing requests. Agents can be installed without changing application code, and the project says their overhead on resource usage is low. Agents are available for Java, PHP and Python applications.

Pinpoint is written in Java and licensed under Apache-2.0. You deploy and operate the Pinpoint components yourself, with a quick-start guide, an installation guide and a Kubernetes deployment option provided, and a live demo is available online for a first look.

Key features

Distributed transaction tracing across services
ServerMap topology visualization
Real-time application monitoring
Code-level visibility into transactions
Agents installed without code changes
Support for Java, PHP and Python apps
Kubernetes deployment option

Good fit for

→Finding bottlenecks in microservice requests
→Mapping the topology of distributed systems
→Monitoring Java applications in production

Built with: Java
Tags: apm; distributed-tracing; monitoring; observability; performance; java; tracing; topology

Pinpoint: questions and answers

What is Pinpoint used for?: Pinpoint is an open-source APM platform that traces transactions across distributed services to show system topology and code-level behavior, for Java, PHP and Python apps. It is a good fit for finding bottlenecks in microservice requests, mapping the topology of distributed systems and monitoring Java applications in production.
Is Pinpoint open source?: Yes. Pinpoint is open source under the Apache-2.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at pinpoint-apm/pinpoint and is written mainly in Java.
Is Pinpoint free?: Yes. Pinpoint is open source, so the software itself is free to use.
Can I self-host Pinpoint?: Yes. Pinpoint can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.
What is Pinpoint an alternative to?: Pinpoint is an open-source alternative to Dynatrace, AppDynamics, Datadog and New Relic. Other open-source alternatives to Dynatrace include SigNoz, Coroot and Uptrace.
Is Pinpoint actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to Pinpoint was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is v3.1.1, published on 2 October 2026. The project has 14k stars on GitHub.