I’ve been searching for a solid log management tool that offers a free tier. This is just for my hobby project, so I don’t need anything too fancy. At the moment, I’m using BetterStack, and while the free tier is pretty generous, I’m not loving the dashboard or the debugging experience—it’s kind of meh.
I also checked out:
DataDog: I’m worried it’s a bit of a trap and could end up costing a lot down the line.
New Relic: Used it in the past, but honestly, it’s kind of a pain to set up.
Sematext: Apparently, they’re getting rid of their free tier, which is a bummer.
Anyone got any recommendations or experiences with other tools? Would love to hear your thoughts!
Have you tried Loggly? I used it for one of my projects, and their free tier isn’t bad. The UI is simple, and it’s easy to get started. It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of the premium tools, but it does the job for hobby stuff.
If you’re already familiar with AWS, you could use CloudWatch. It’s free for basic usage and integrates nicely with other AWS services. The learning curve is a bit steep if you’re not already in the AWS ecosystem, but once you get past that, it’s pretty solid.
Elastic Stack (formerly ELK). It’s open-source and free, though you’ll need to host it yourself. If you’re okay with a little more setup, it gives you a lot of control and flexibility over your logs. Definitely not as ‘quick and easy’ as BetterStack, but more powerful in the long run.
I’ve been using Papertrail for a few small projects. Free tier is decent for basic usage, and it’s super easy to set up and monitor. Not as flashy as some others, but it does the job with minimal hassle!
Check out Fluentd. It’s open-source, and you can tailor it to your specific needs. You can also integrate it with other tools like Grafana for visualization. It might require more initial effort to set up, but the flexibility is worth it.
