What should I use for API gateway logging and tracing?

For API gateway logging and tracing, the best choice depends on whether you want simple logs, distributed tracing, or a full observability stack.

Good default recommendation

Use:

• OpenTelemetry for tracing and metrics instrumentation
• Structured JSON logs for gateway access/error logs
• A backend like Grafana Loki + Tempo + Prometheus or a managed observability platform

This gives you vendor-neutral observability and works well across most gateways.

If you want specific tools

For tracing

• OpenTelemetry: current standard
• Jaeger: great for viewing traces
• Grafana Tempo: good if you already use Grafana
• Zipkin: lighter-weight, simpler

For logging

• JSON logs from the gateway
• ELK/EFK stack:
  • Elasticsearch / OpenSearch
  • Fluent Bit / Fluentd / Logstash
  • Kibana / OpenSearch Dashboards
• Grafana Loki: simpler and cheaper than Elasticsearch for many use cases

For metrics

• Prometheus + Grafana

If you’re using a specific gateway

• Kong: supports OpenTelemetry and plugins for logs
• NGINX / NGINX Plus: access logs + OpenTelemetry integration
• Envoy: very strong support for access logs and tracing
• AWS API Gateway: CloudWatch Logs + X-Ray
• Azure API Management: Application Insights
• Apigee: built-in analytics and tracing integrations

Practical setup

A common production setup is:

• API Gateway emits:
  • access logs in JSON
  • trace context headers (traceparent)
• OpenTelemetry Collector receives traces/metrics/logs
• Export to:
  • Tempo or Jaeger for traces
  • Loki or Elasticsearch/OpenSearch for logs
  • Prometheus for metrics

What to pick if you want the shortest answer

• Best open standard: OpenTelemetry
• Best logs backend for many teams: Loki
• Best trace UI: Jaeger or Grafana Tempo
• Best enterprise managed option: Datadog, New Relic, Splunk, or Dynatrace

If you tell me which API gateway you use and whether you want open-source or managed, I can suggest a concrete stack and config.