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Papertrail is a cloud-based log management and log analysis solution that allows users to aggregate, search, and examine log data from numerous sources in real-time. It offers a centralized platform for tracking and troubleshooting applications, servers, and infrastructure by gathering and indexing log messages produced by systems, applications, and network devices. The solution offers numerous benefits that have helped it grow in popularity. One of these is that for Linux users, configuration and setup are particularly simple, just by inputting a few commands you can quickly have Papertrail up and running.
However, whilst Papertrail offers beneficial features and capabilities to organizations, the tool isn’t without its limitations. Firstly, numerous users of Papertrail have expressed their discontent with the current pricing strategy. If you’re processing a significant amount of log data it can quickly become expensive to use Papertrail and choosing a custom plan doesn't necessarily solve this as the custom plan options are relatively limited. In addition to this, Papertrail doesn’t supply particularly robust features or customizability. The tool automatically parses logs, yet it doesn’t support custom parsing, which is crucial for proprietary formats.
These limitations of Papertrail have led many users to begin searching for Papertrail alternatives that are more cost-efficient and better meet the needs of their organization. However, finding these alternatives can be a time-consuming task. So, to assist you with this, in this article we will outline 10 of the leading Papertrail alternatives.
Contents
Better Stack
The first log management solution in our Papertrail alternatives guide is Better Stack, formerly Logtail. This tool's standout feature is its rapid search and querying capabilities, enabled by Clickhouse you can search up to 1 billion log lines per second. Better Stack also builds upon one of Papertrails favored features, its team collaboration. With Better Stack, you can shadow your colleague in one click and collaborate where your data lives to rectify issues quicker.
Key Features:
- Facilitates effective collaboration
- Pre-built dashboards
- SQL query builder
- Fast searching and querying
Signoz
SigNoz is an open-source observability tool with native support for OpenTelemetry for collecting logs. To utilize SigNoz as a log management tool you’ll need to install an OpenTelemetry collector. Signoz offers a unified platform for observability. Having all observability data in one platform allows for complete visibility and enables comprehensive analysis and troubleshooting of issues across the entire system. As well as this, Signoz is an open-source platform, and therefore allows you to have full access to the source code and can customize it to suit your specific requirements, a significant improvement on the customizability of Papertrail.
Key Features:
- Highly scalable and customizable
- Open-source
- Unified observability platform
- Community support
Logit.io
Logit.io is a powerful Papertrail alternative with comprehensive log management and monitoring capabilities. Logit.io provides user with centralized monitoring, rather than monitoring log files from distributed origins separately, to provide easy access and facilitate far more accurate insights and alerts. As well as this, Logit.io is one of the most cost-effective log monitoring solutions currently available, especially when compared to Papertrails' offering. You can select a plan that best suits the requirements of your organization and benefit from a 14-day free trial to explore the platform for yourself.
Key Features:
- Utilize popular open-source tools like hosted Grafana
- Cost-effective
- Built on the ELK stack
- Effective data tagging, classification, and filtering
Site24x7
With Site24x7 you can utilize a centralized log management solution with unified observability to assist you in troubleshooting, optimizing performance, and making data-driven decisions. Site24x7’s solution offers a simple and intuitive query language and search option to help you filter, search, and analyze incoming log data. As well as this, the tool provides support for over 100 applications, systems, and cloud logs.
Key Features:
- Centralized log management and unified observability
- High scalability
- IT automation
- Custom reports and dashboards
Sematext
Sematext offers log monitoring, similar to Papertrails solution, that enables you to monitor logs from numerous different sources from a single pane of glass. With this solution, you can combine logs, metrics, and infrastructure data into a single real-time dashboard for system-wide visibility and analysis. As well as this, you can filter and search on specific data to find critical log events as soon as they occur.
Key Features:
- Alerting with priorty levels
- View logs in real-time when they're sent
- Automated logs discovery
- Single intuitive interface
WhatsUp Gold
The next Papertrails alternative is Progess’ WhatsUp Gold. This tool helps to supply visibility and management of your device log data that’s been integrated into an industry-leading interface. You can visualize your logs with mapping, customizable dashboards, alerting, and reporting. As well as this, with WhatsUp Gold you’re able to comply with regulatory requirements by archiving historic data without impacting performance.
Key Features:
- Industry-leading interface
- View log status and events on customizable dashboards
- Utilize alerts and set triggers on specific conditions
- Combines network monitoring and log management into one solution
DataSet
DataSet offers full-stack log analytics for every application and can be utilized by all teams. DataSet consolidates data from hybrid or multi-cloud setups across all hosts, applications, and cloud services, offering extensive visibility across platforms. The tool also supports Kubernetes monitoring and other managed services such as IBM IKS, Amazon EKS, and Azure AKS. As well as this, with DataSet you can instantly search and examine logs or live tail all data.
Key Features:
- Cloud-scale SaaS
- Kubernetes and managed services monitoring
- Reduce operational cost by only paying for queries
- Hybrid or multi-cloud monitoring
Sumo Logic
Sumo Logic offers log management tools for the entire stack irrespective of the environment, such as on-premises or hybrid. This tool can assist you in stopping breaches, finding indicators of compromise, and turning your data into actionable threat intelligence. As well as this, Sumo Logic can help you to reduce your MTTR by using machine learning root-cause analysis.
Key Features:
- Over 150 apps and integrations
- Machine learning root-cause analysis
- easy-to-use dashboards
- Monitoring for all environments, cloud, hybrid, and on-premises
Dynatrace
As part of its broader observability suite, Dynatrace offers a log management solution, that is an ideal Papertrail alternative. This tool enables you to collect and parse log data in real-time without the need for indexing. As well as this with Dynatrace you can accelerate cloud-driven analytics with the automatic connection of logs and traces. Lastly, you can monitor Kubernetes to enhance cluster health and guarantee performant applications across complex multi-cloud environments.
Key Features:
- AI-powered root cause analysis
- Examine and isolate attack patterns and impact
- AI-powered baselining and anomaly detection
- Store, analyze, and query cluster-level logs
Logz.io
The final Papertrail alternative in this guide is Logz.io, a cloud-native observability platform that specializes in log management. With Logz.io you can ship your logs from any stack at any scale and Logz.io will handle the ingestion, storage, scaling up, and data security. The Logz.io platform enables you to automatically surface exceptions and errors in your log data. As well as this, with this solution you can gain full visibility into your environment in one place.
Key Features:
- Based on OpenSearch and OpenSearch dashboards
- Real-time alerting
- Human-coached AI/ML
- Little to no maintenance
Logit.io's powerful capabilities for log management and monitoring make the solution a suitable Papertrails alternative. If you're interested in finding out more about the platform, don't hesistate to start using the platform today with our 14-day free trial.
If you've enjoyed this article why not read the Leading Loggly Alternatives or the Leading Sumo Logic Alternatives next?