Sentry, Better Stack and Bugsnag cover the two related but distinct jobs of catching application errors before users report them and searching through logs after something goes wrong, and most small teams end up running at least one error tracker alongside a separate logging tool.
Error tracking and logging solve adjacent but different problems, and conflating them is a common early mistake. An error tracker like Sentry or Bugsnag exists to catch an exception the moment it happens, group it with every other occurrence of the same bug, and tell you which release introduced it and how many users it’s hitting. A logging platform like Better Stack exists to let you search through the raw stream of everything your application printed, which matters for debugging issues that never throw a clean exception, like a slow query or a misconfigured integration. Sentry and Bugsnag compete directly with each other on the error-tracking side. Better Stack sits in a different lane, and for most teams the realistic setup is an error tracker plus a logging tool, not one tool doing both jobs adequately.
- Sentry for the deepest error grouping and release tracking
- Bugsnag for stability scoring and release health at a glance
- Better Stack for searchable, affordable log aggregation
- Why error tracking and logging are usually two separate tools, not one
- What each platform's pricing actually scales with
Error tracking and logging are just one layer of a healthy production stack. See our cloud and developer tools buying guide for how this fits alongside monitoring, deployment and infrastructure choices.
Key takeaways
- Error tracking and logging are usually two separate tools Sentry or Bugsnag catch and group exceptions; Better Stack searches raw log output. Most production setups on a small team run one of each rather than expecting either category to cover both jobs.
- Sentry and Bugsnag both bill primarily on event volume A noisy application that logs the same error thousands of times a day can burn through a plan’s event quota fast; both tools deduplicate similar errors, but volume still drives the bill.
- Logging costs scale with ingest volume and retention, not seats Better Stack and most log platforms charge by GB ingested and how long you keep it, so verbose debug-level logging in production is a direct, controllable cost lever.
- Release tracking separates a debugging tool from a triage tool Both Sentry and Bugsnag can tell you which deploy introduced a regression, turning “something broke” into “this specific release broke this specific thing,” which matters more than raw error counts.
Our picks at a glance
Sentry
Sentry is an error tracking and application monitoring platform that catches unhandled exceptions and performance issues across web, mobile and backend applications, then groups every occurrence of the same underlying bug into a single issue instead of flooding you with duplicate alerts. Its breadcrumb trail, showing the sequence of events leading up to a crash, and its release tracking, tying an issue to the exact deploy that introduced it, are the two features that separate genuinely useful error tracking from a raw exception log.
The free Developer plan covers solo use with a capped monthly error event allowance, enough to run a personal project or evaluate the tool properly. The self-serve Team plan is priced with a base monthly cost, which bundles a base event quota across errors, and additional performance and session replay volume, with per-event overage pricing once you exceed it. That overage model is worth watching closely: a genuinely noisy application, one throwing the same error thousands of times an hour due to an upstream outage, can burn through a plan's quota fast, though Sentry does deduplicate identical errors into one issue rather than billing each occurrence as a fully separate event count against the display.
Sentry is the right pick for a team that wants the deepest error context, the broadest SDK coverage across languages and frameworks, and integrated release health tracking without needing to also stand up separate application performance monitoring. It's a less compelling standalone choice if your primary need is full-text log search rather than structured exception tracking, since Sentry's logging features exist but are not its core strength.
Better Stack
Better Stack is a logging and observability platform, combining what used to be separate Logtail (logs) and Better Uptime (status monitoring) products into one, built around fast full-text search across log data rather than exception grouping. Where Sentry tells you an error happened and groups it, Better Stack lets you search through everything your application actually printed, which matters for debugging problems that never raise a clean, catchable exception, a slow database query, a misconfigured third-party API call, or a request that silently returned the wrong data.
Pricing is usage-based, tied to how much log data you ingest per day and how long you keep it, rather than a flat per-seat or per-error-event model. A free tier covers a modest daily ingest volume at short retention, enough to try the product with a real application, and paid tiers scale up from there against both ingest volume and retention length. Because that pricing structure is genuinely usage-driven and changes with Better Stack's own published rate card, we're deliberately not quoting a specific monthly figure here that could be stale by the time you read this; check their current pricing page against your expected daily log volume.
Better Stack fits a team that wants fast, affordable log search to complement an error tracker like Sentry or Bugsnag, particularly one that also wants uptime and status page monitoring bundled into the same platform rather than a third separate tool. It's not a replacement for structured error tracking, its strength is raw log search, not exception grouping or release-level stability scoring.
Bugsnag (Insight Hub)
Bugsnag, now sold under SmartBear's Insight Hub branding, is an error monitoring platform built around a specific idea: a single stability score per release, telling you at a glance whether the version of your app currently live is healthy enough to leave running or needs an immediate rollback. That release health framing is Bugsnag's clearest differentiator from Sentry, which shows you more raw detail per error but doesn't summarize release quality into one number as directly.
Bugsnag's pricing is tiered around monthly error event volume and is largely quote-based once you move past the entry tier, with a free trial available to evaluate the product against a real application. Because published pricing for team plans varies and isn't consistently confirmable at the level of precision this site holds itself to, we're not quoting a specific dollar figure here; request a quote against your actual expected event volume directly from Bugsnag.
Bugsnag is a strong fit for a team, particularly one shipping mobile apps alongside web, that wants a fast answer to "is this release safe" without digging through individual error details first, and its mobile SDK support has historically been a particular strength relative to some competitors. It's a less natural choice if deep, granular stack trace and breadcrumb detail per individual error matters more to your workflow than an aggregate release-level health score, where Sentry's depth tends to win out.
|
Best overall
Sentry
|
Best for logging
Better Stack
|
Best for release health
Bugsnag
|
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Primary job | Error tracking | Log search | Error tracking |
| Pricing basis | Event volume | GB ingested | Event volume |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Release health scoring | Yes | No | Yes |
| Full-text log search | No | Yes | No |
| Check Price | Check Price | Check Price |
What to look for in error tracking and logging tools
The two categories solve different problems: error tracking catches and groups exceptions, logging lets you search everything your app printed. Most production setups need both, but not necessarily from the same vendor.
A single misbehaving dependency can spike error event counts or log volume dramatically for hours, and pricing models that don’t cap or alert on that spike can produce a surprising bill.
Knowing which specific release introduced a regression turns a vague ‘errors went up’ signal into an actionable ‘this deploy broke this thing.’
Error tracking quality depends heavily on how well the SDK captures stack traces and context for your specific language and framework, not just whether an SDK technically exists.
Short retention windows are fine for active debugging but can conflict with audit, compliance, or post-incident review requirements that need logs from weeks or months earlier.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need both an error tracker and a separate logging tool?
For most small production applications, yes, eventually. An error tracker like Sentry or Bugsnag catches and groups exceptions automatically, but it won’t help you debug an issue that never throws a clean error, like a slow query or a silently wrong response. A logging tool like Better Stack fills that gap by letting you search the raw output your application actually produced.
How is Sentry different from Bugsnag?
Both catch and group errors, but Sentry generally offers deeper per-error detail, breadcrumbs and broader SDK coverage across languages, while Bugsnag’s Insight Hub branding leans on a release-level stability score that gives a faster at-a-glance answer to whether a given deploy is healthy. Teams that want maximum debugging depth per error tend to prefer Sentry; teams that want a fast release-health signal, especially for mobile apps, often prefer Bugsnag.
Will a noisy bug make my error tracking bill spike unexpectedly?
It can, since both Sentry and Bugsnag bill primarily on error event volume, and a single misbehaving dependency or infinite retry loop can generate thousands of events in a short window. Both platforms deduplicate identical errors into one issue for display purposes, but the underlying event count driving the bill still reflects total occurrences, so setting spend alerts is worth doing before you need them.
Can I use Better Stack instead of an error tracker?
You can search error-level log lines in Better Stack, but you’ll lose the automatic exception grouping, stack trace capture, breadcrumb trails and release health scoring that dedicated error trackers build specifically for that job. Better Stack is a strong complement to an error tracker, not a full substitute for one.
Final recommendation
- Treat error tracking and logging as two related but separate purchases, not one tool covering both
- Set spend alerts on event volume or log ingest before a noisy incident produces a surprise bill
- Confirm SDK quality for your specific language and framework before comparing platforms on features alone
Run Sentry as your primary error tracker for the deepest per-error detail and the widest SDK coverage. Add Better Stack for searchable log aggregation once you need to debug issues that don’t throw clean exceptions. Consider Bugsnag over Sentry specifically if a release-level stability score, rather than per-error depth, is what your team actually checks daily.
- Wire up the free tier of an error tracker on a real project this week; most regressions are found faster once alerts exist at all.
- Read our full cloud and developer tools buying guide for the complete category breakdown.
