No. 10 of 29 ·eBPF Observability Tools

bpftrace

Linux · Self-hosted

Freedom report

Two barsScore 6.4

Free tierA free tier is on its own pricing page
Open codeNo open-source code on record
Runs widely1 of 6 device platforms
DocumentedPlans, terms and facts published

bpftrace is ranked #10 of 29 in eBPF observability tools on Freedom251. It runs on Linux, Self-hosted. There is a free plan.

bpftrace plans and pricing

All plans

bpftrace Free Open-source Linux tracing tool · requires a compatible Linux kernel and BPF support github.com · 4 Oct 2026

Compared on eBPF observability tools

Free plan: Yes
Deployment model: self-hosted
Network visibility: Yes
Application tracing: Yes
Kernel profiling: Yes
Supported operating systems: Linux

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The record

Purpose: bpftrace is a high-level tracing language and general-purpose tracing tool for Linux that uses eBPF.
Tracing sources: It supports kernel and user-level dynamic tracing, perf events, USDT, uprobes, and tracepoints.
Compiler and libraries: bpftrace uses LLVM as a compiler backend and libbpf to interact with the Linux BPF subsystem.
Language: Its language is inspired by awk, C, DTrace, and SystemTap.
Scripting: Programs can be supplied as a file, inline with -e, or through standard input.
Standard library: The standard library includes builtins, functions, macros, and map value functions.
Security control: Helpers marked unsafe require the --unsafe flag to use.
Import security: bpftrace refuses to import files from world-writable directories.
Operational limit: The default maximum number of probes is 1,024; increasing it can use more memory, increase startup time, and cause high overhead or system freezes or crashes.
Installation: The project README lists installation commands for several Linux distribution package managers, including apt, dnf, apk, pacman, emerge, and zypper.
Support: The project README points users to GitHub Discussions, the issue tracker, monthly office hours, and Discord for help or involvement.
Intended users: The project says its contributors, users, and organizations rely on it for production tracing and debugging.
Tracing: It supports static and dynamic tracing for both the kernel and user space.
Probe types: The documentation describes probes including kprobes, uprobes, and tracepoints.
Price from: Free

Where it ranks on Freedom251

Best eBPF Observability Tools in 2026#10 of 29

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Sources

bpftrace.org· checked 3 Oct 2026
github.com/bpftrace/bpftrace· checked 3 Oct 2026
bpftrace.org/docs/release_027/cli· checked 3 Oct 2026
bpftrace.org/docs/release_027/stdlib· checked 3 Oct 2026
bpftrace.org/docs/release_027/language· checked 3 Oct 2026
github.com/bpftrace/bpftrace/blob/master/README.md· checked 3 Oct 2026
bpftrace.org/about· checked 4 Oct 2026
bpftrace.org/ecosystem· checked 4 Oct 2026
bpftrace.org/playground· checked 4 Oct 2026