Zipkin is a powerful distributed tracing system designed to assist in identifying and resolving latency issues within service architectures. It offers features for both collecting and querying timing data, making it easier to troubleshoot performance problems. Users can directly access trace data using trace IDs from logs or can conduct searches based on various attributes such as service, operation name, tags, and duration. Additionally, Zipkin provides insightful summaries, including the percentage of time spent on each service and the status of operations, which can be crucial for performance analysis.

The user interface of Zipkin includes a dependency diagram that visually represents the flow of traced requests through applications. This feature is particularly helpful for pinpointing aggregate behaviors, error paths, and connections to deprecated services. Suitable for a wide range of organizations from small businesses to enterprises, Zipkin supports various integrations, including ActiveMQ, Apache Kafka, and Elasticsearch, enhancing its functionality in diverse IT environments.