diff --git a/content/en/blog/2025/deprecating-zipkin-exporters.md b/content/en/blog/2025/deprecating-zipkin-exporters.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..d9304eac30d3 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/en/blog/2025/deprecating-zipkin-exporters.md @@ -0,0 +1,53 @@ +--- +title: Deprecating Zipkin Exporter +linkTitle: Deprecating Zipkin Exporter +date: 2025-12-01 +author: >- + [Liudmila Molkova](https://github.com/lmolkova) (Grafana Labs) +sig: Specification +issue: https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification/pull/4715 +cSpell:ignore: Liudmila Molkova +--- + +The OpenTelemetry project is deprecating the Zipkin exporter specification in +favor of +[Zipkin's OTLP ingestion support](https://github.com/openzipkin-contrib/zipkin-otel). + +Thank you to all Zipkin contributors for helping OpenTelemetry reach this +milestone! + +After analyzing usage patterns across language ecosystems, we've observed that +the community has strongly gravitated toward OTLP, with Zipkin exporters seeing +limited adoption — in several languages, even less than the already-deprecated +Jaeger exporter. Combined with minimal user engagement on related issues and the +availability of alternatives, we believe this is the right time to sunset Zipkin +exporters in OTel SDKs. + +## Timeline and migration path + +- **Specification deprecation**: Effective from December 2025. +- **SDK support**: Existing stable Zipkin exporters will continue to receive + security patches and critical bug fixes until at least **December 2026**, + following the + [SDK stability guarantees](/docs/specs/otel/versioning-and-stability/#sdk-support). +- **New SDKs**: Implementing a Zipkin exporter is not required for new language + SDKs. + +## What should users do? + +If you're currently using a Zipkin exporter, you have two migration paths: + +- **Switch to OTLP** (recommended): Configure your application to send traces + using OTLP and enable + [Zipkin's OTLP ingestion support](https://github.com/openzipkin-contrib/zipkin-otel). +- **Use the Collector**: Route your OTLP data through the OpenTelemetry + Collector with its + [Zipkin exporter](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib/tree/main/exporter/zipkinexporter). + +## Questions? + +Reach out in the +[#otel-specification](https://cloud-native.slack.com/archives/C01N7PP1THC) +channel on CNCF Slack or create an issue in the +[opentelemetry-specification](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification) +repository. diff --git a/static/refcache.json b/static/refcache.json index aabe1d67ca2d..c441243b3c19 100644 --- a/static/refcache.json +++ b/static/refcache.json @@ -13263,6 +13263,10 @@ "StatusCode": 206, "LastSeen": "2025-11-20T09:40:17.422751796Z" }, + "https://github.com/openzipkin-contrib/zipkin-otel": { + "StatusCode": 206, + "LastSeen": "2025-11-26T01:31:06.752926473Z" + }, "https://github.com/openzipkin/b3-propagation": { "StatusCode": 206, "LastSeen": "2025-11-20T09:40:28.395886598Z"