Oh Dear
Oh Dear's weekly changelogs have carried a security section five weeks running.
Comparison · Infra & APIs
CrowdSec vs Jaeger
A side-by-side editorial comparison of CrowdSec and Jaeger — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
CrowdSec vs Jaeger: at a glance
What is CrowdSec?
CrowdSec's 1.8.2 candidates let operators write their own bot fingerprints.
The bot detection introduced with 1.8 is now being opened to customization. The 1.8.2 candidates add custom JavaScript fingerprinting, a cscli bot subcommand and a FlagSubmission helper, and rc2 adds a RateLimit helper for the WAF plus a cookie option for embedded contexts. Operational work runs alongside it: a cs_features metric, optional limits on concurrent decision streams and TLS certificate reloads.
What is Jaeger?
Jaeger's query service learns to search individual spans, not just whole traces.
Jaeger 2.21 and 2.22 extend the 2.x storage and query rework. ClickHouse storage moved to a stable feature gate in 2.21, and the release removed v1 HTTP endpoints the UI no longer calls. In 2.22 the query service gains FindSpans with RFC 0014 pagination, Elasticsearch span search, and structured filters promoted to beta, while native Elasticsearch trace summaries go stable.
CrowdSec vs Jaeger: editorial side-by-side
CrowdSec
5.0INFRA · APIS
CrowdSec's 1.8.2 candidates let operators write their own bot fingerprints.
◆ Current state
The bot detection introduced with 1.8 is now being opened to customization. The 1.8.2 candidates add custom JavaScript fingerprinting, a cscli bot subcommand and a FlagSubmission helper, and rc2 adds a RateLimit helper for the WAF plus a cookie option for embedded contexts. Operational work runs alongside it: a cs_features metric, optional limits on concurrent decision streams and TLS certificate reloads.
◆ Where it's heading
The WAF remains the center of gravity, and the direction is programmability. RateLimit, SkipProcessing and the fingerprinting hooks give rule authors primitives rather than fixed behavior. The LAPI changes point at larger deployments, where decision streaming puts load on the central API.
◆ Prediction
The final 1.8.2 is dated 26 October on GitHub, though it has not reached this feed yet. Whether fingerprint data ever joins the community blocklist remains unanswered in these notes.
Jaeger
2.5INFRA · APIS
Jaeger's query service learns to search individual spans, not just whole traces.
◆ Current state
Jaeger 2.21 and 2.22 extend the 2.x storage and query rework. ClickHouse storage moved to a stable feature gate in 2.21, and the release removed v1 HTTP endpoints the UI no longer calls. In 2.22 the query service gains FindSpans with RFC 0014 pagination, Elasticsearch span search, and structured filters promoted to beta, while native Elasticsearch trace summaries go stable.
◆ Where it's heading
The earlier trace-summaries work made search cheaper; span search changes what can be asked. Pagination and structured filters give both the UI and MCP clients a way to query without pulling whole traces. MCP keeps getting practical limits and input checks, and search_traces no longer needs a service name on backends that declare support for that.
◆ Prediction
Expect span search to spread beyond Elasticsearch and memory storage, and structured filters to move from beta to stable as other gates have. Further removal of v1 surface is likely, since 2.21 already started it.
Alternatives to CrowdSec and Jaeger
Other Infra & APIs products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either CrowdSec or Jaeger.
Apache ShenYu
ShenYu's AI gateway plugins are back in motion, with 2.7.2 candidate tags in October.
TestingBot
TestingBot's autumn work is plumbing: a rebuilt tunnel and another bug-tracker link.
KubeArmor
KubeArmor ships fixes as release-candidate tags, and its feed misses the finals.
All Quiet
All Quiet moves from enterprise integrations to the on-call engineer's own day.
Robusta
Robusta's recent releases patch its runner image rather than add features.
See all CrowdSec alternatives → · See all Jaeger alternatives →
Recent activity from CrowdSec and Jaeger
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 10d agoCrowdSec1.8.2 rc2 adds a WAF RateLimit helper and decision stream limits
- 19d agoCrowdSec1.8.2 rc1 adds custom JS fingerprinting for bot detection
- 26d agoJaegerSpan search and pagination reach the query service
- 1mo agoJaegerClickHouse goes stable; unused v1 HTTP endpoints removed
- 2mo agoCrowdSec1.8 rc2 tunes the bot-detection challenge, hardens acquisition
- 3mo agoCrowdSecCrowdSec 1.8 RC adds WAF bot detection and a Kubernetes datasource ⚡
- 3mo agoJaegerMCP merges into the query service; Elasticsearch 6 support removed ⚡
- 5mo agoJaegerLightweight trace-summaries endpoint arrives in the v3 API
- 5mo agoJaegerHeader forwarding to storage backends and UI base-path autodetection
- 6mo agoCrowdSec1.7.8 RC: OpenAPI schema validation in the WAF
- 7mo agoJaegerClock-skew and jitter fixes; metrics storage exposed to the UI
- 7mo agoCrowdSec1.7.7 RC: flexible WAF rule conditions and RE2 by default
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between CrowdSec and Jaeger?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. CrowdSec is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 5.0 vs 2.5), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is CrowdSec better than Jaeger?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. CrowdSec is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 5.0 vs 2.5), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Infra & APIs products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to CrowdSec?
Top CrowdSec alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "CrowdSec alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/crowdsec for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to Jaeger?
Top Jaeger alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Jaeger alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/jaeger for the full list with editorial commentary on each.