Trace Explorer: nice UI but why is everything so sluggish
We’re currently using the OTEL Collector, and from a technical perspective the data arrives in Google Cloud just fine. So this is not about ingestion being broken or traces/logs missing. The data is there, the integration works.
And yes, the UI of Trace Explorer and Log Explorer looks really good. No question. But honestly, that is not a strong differentiator anymore. Other tools have good UIs too.
We explicitly chose a cloud solution because we did not want the maintenance overhead. No self-hosted stack, no updates, no operations burden, no “who is responsible for keeping this thing alive?” That was the whole point.
But to be honest, I’m starting to prefer the LGTM stack a lot more, especially Grafana. It just feels better for day-to-day usage.
What bothers me most about Trace Explorer is not even a missing feature. It is the constant loading animation, the choppy browser experience, and the feeling that the UI is overloaded. Everything takes too long. Everything feels sluggish. When I’m looking at traces or logs, I don’t need a pretty loading spinner. I need instant results.
And I’m not the only one. Me and my colleagues only open it when they really have no other option. That says a lot.
For context: I’m not using some old machine. I’m on a MacBook Pro with an M4 chip and Vivaldi. My colleagues are also on modern MacBooks, some using Safari. Still, Trace Explorer often feels like clicking through molasses.
Maybe I’m spoiled by Grafana and similar tools, but observability tools need to be fast. When I’m debugging an issue, I don’t want to fight the tool.
How do you deal with this? Are you using Trace Explorer / Log Explorer productively and actually happy with it? Do you have any workarounds, browser tips, or do you forward everything into other tools?
Disclaimer: This text is translated and polished with AI