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Glances vs Pinpoint

A side-by-side editorial comparison of Glances and Pinpoint — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.

Glances vs Pinpoint: at a glance

FeatureGlancesPinpoint
SectorAnalyticsAnalytics
Velocity score5.03.8
Sparks · 30d01
Top themessystem monitoring, security fixes, alerting, gpu monitoringapm, distributed tracing, opentelemetry, jvm agents
Last editorial update3h ago4h ago
WebsiteVisit →Visit →

What is Glances?

After a year of CVE fixes, Glances 4.5.7 turns to making its alerts tell the truth.

Most Glances releases this year carried security patches: 4.5.2 alone corrected eight CVEs, and 4.5.3 to 4.5.6 kept going, ending with a credential leak through URL config values. 4.5.7 in September broke the pattern with a long list of correctness fixes, many of them alerts that fired on the wrong value or never fired, plus WebUI colouring bugs and a fix for --enable-mcp under mcp 2.0. 4.5.8 in October fixed export edge cases.

Read the full Glances trajectory →

What is Pinpoint?

Pinpoint 4.0 takes OpenTelemetry traces without its agent; 3.1.1 tames reactive overhead.

Pinpoint, the open-source APM, opened its 4.0 line on 29 October: services on by default, OpenTelemetry traces ingested without the Pinpoint agent, and service-based alarms. A month earlier, 3.1.1 cut agent overhead on Reactor, WebFlux and Kotlin coroutine workloads, added Spring Framework 7 compatibility and hardened the Web and Batch modules, with no schema changes.

Read the full Pinpoint trajectory →

Glances vs Pinpoint: editorial side-by-side

G
Glances
ANALYTICS
5.0

After a year of CVE fixes, Glances 4.5.7 turns to making its alerts tell the truth.

◆ Current state

Most Glances releases this year carried security patches: 4.5.2 alone corrected eight CVEs, and 4.5.3 to 4.5.6 kept going, ending with a credential leak through URL config values. 4.5.7 in September broke the pattern with a long list of correctness fixes, many of them alerts that fired on the wrong value or never fired, plus WebUI colouring bugs and a fix for --enable-mcp under mcp 2.0. 4.5.8 in October fixed export edge cases.

◆ Where it's heading

Hardware coverage keeps widening alongside the fixes (Intel, AMD and ARM GPUs, Rockchip NPUs, LXC containers), and a v4 cutover tag in October suggests repository restructuring ahead. The security run appears to have eased since August.

◆ Prediction

Unclear what the v4 cutover changes for users; until it is explained, expect more 4.5.x maintenance releases.

P
Pinpoint
ANALYTICS
3.8

Pinpoint 4.0 takes OpenTelemetry traces without its agent; 3.1.1 tames reactive overhead.

◆ Current state

Pinpoint, the open-source APM, opened its 4.0 line on 29 October: services on by default, OpenTelemetry traces ingested without the Pinpoint agent, and service-based alarms. A month earlier, 3.1.1 cut agent overhead on Reactor, WebFlux and Kotlin coroutine workloads, added Spring Framework 7 compatibility and hardened the Web and Batch modules, with no schema changes.

◆ Where it's heading

Pinpoint is loosening the tie between its backend and its own Java agent, which widens who can send it data. The 3.x line keeps the agent fast on modern reactive stacks while 4.0 takes the platform changes, the same split between rare structural jumps and steady patch work seen across 3.0 and 3.1.

◆ Prediction

Expect 4.0.x patches settling OpenTelemetry ingest and the services model, with 3.1.x receiving backports in parallel as 3.0.x did after 3.1.0.

Alternatives to Glances and Pinpoint

Other Analytics 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 Glances or Pinpoint.

See all Glances alternatives → · See all Pinpoint alternatives →

Recent activity from Glances and Pinpoint

Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.

  1. 4d agoPinpoint4.0.0 release ⚡
  2. 22d agoGlancesGlances 4.5.8
  3. 22d agoGlancesPre-cutover tag before the v4 migration
  4. 1mo agoPinpointPinpoint 3.1.1 cuts agent overhead on reactive Java apps
  5. 1mo agoGlancesGlances 4.5.7 fixes dozens of wrong or silent alerts
  6. 3mo agoGlancesCredential leak via URL values in /api/4/config
  7. 4mo agoGlancesContainer API latency, ARM GPU monitoring, AMP command-execution fix
  8. 5mo agoPinpoint3.1.0 rebuilds ServerMap and lifts application names to 254 characters ⚡
  9. 6mo agoGlancesRockchip MPP and NPU monitoring, plus three CVE corrections
  10. 7mo agoPinpoint3.0.5: backports and a move to Central Portal publishing
  11. 11mo agoPinpoint3.0.4 adds Java 26, Kafka Streams and nested Spring Boot JAR support
  12. 1y agoPinpoint3.0.3 adds an S3 client plugin and Kafka 4.x compatibility

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between Glances and Pinpoint?

They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. Glances is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 5.0 vs 3.8), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 1. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.

Is Glances better than Pinpoint?

Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Glances is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 5.0 vs 3.8), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 1. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Analytics products to evaluate alongside.

What are the best alternatives to Glances?

Top Glances alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Glances alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/glances for the full list with editorial commentary on each.

What are the best alternatives to Pinpoint?

Top Pinpoint alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Pinpoint alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/pinpoint for the full list with editorial commentary on each.