Log Management · head to head
Airbrake vs Elastic APM
Elastic APM
Log Management
Application Performance Monitoring from Elastic
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Each has a real cost: Airbrake data retention is 30 days on every plan, including the $799 a month Business tier; Elastic APM pricing is not published on the product page; cost follows the underlying Elastic deployment rather than being quoted per host or per service
- They diverge on capability: Airbrake covers Deploy tracking, Elastic APM covers Transaction tracing.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Airbrake and Elastic APM actually diverge.
| Attribute | Airbrake | Elastic APM |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | usage-based | open-source |
| Founded | 2008 | 2011 |
Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), platforms (Web, Api), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Log Management).
What each one covers
Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.
Only in Airbrake
- Deploy tracking
- Custom notifications
Only in Elastic APM
- Transaction tracing
- Custom metrics
Both cover
- Error tracking
- Performance monitoring
- API
- Webhooks
- REST
- Web support
- Api support
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Airbrake
- Error and exception monitoring for web applicationsnot Elastic APM
- Performance monitoring alongside error trackingnot Elastic APM
- Alerting a team when a deploy introduces a spike in errorsnot Elastic APM
- Tracking errors across multiple projects in one accountnot Elastic APM
Elastic APM
- Distributed tracing across microservicesnot Airbrake
- Auto-instrumenting Java, .NET, Python, Go, Node.js, Ruby, PHP and C++ servicesnot Airbrake
- OpenTelemetry-native collection through the Elastic distributionsnot Airbrake
- Correlating latency and errors with machine learningnot Airbrake
- Monitoring LLM calls alongside application tracesnot Airbrake
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Airbrake
- Data retention is 30 days on every plan, including the $799 a month Business tier
- The entry plan at $19 a month covers 25,000 errors and 7,500 events
- Errors beyond the plan quota are billed on demand
- Audit logs and spike forgiveness require the Pro tier
- The lowest tier is limited to 1 user and 1 team
Elastic APM
- Pricing is not published on the product page; cost follows the underlying Elastic deployment rather than being quoted per host or per service
- Self-managed deployment means running and scaling Elasticsearch yourself
- Serverless does not carry every capability the hosted option does
Pricing, plan by plan
Airbrake
Free- FreeFree
- Error tracking
- Performance monitoring
- Deploy tracking
Elastic APM
Free- FreeFree
- Performance monitoring
- Error tracking
- Transaction tracing
Which should you pick?
Choose Airbrake if
- You need deploy tracking.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Web, Api.
- You also want custom notifications.
Choose Elastic APM if
- You need transaction tracing.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Web, Api.
- You also want custom metrics.
Questions people ask
- Is Airbrake or Elastic APM better?
- Neither clearly leads. Airbrake starts at Free and Elastic APM at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Airbrake or Elastic APM?
- Airbrake starts at Free and Elastic APM at Free.
- Does Airbrake or Elastic APM run on more platforms?
- Both run on Web, Api, so platform support will not decide this one for you.
- Can I use Airbrake for free?
- Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
- What is Airbrake best used for?
- Airbrake is most often used for error and exception monitoring for web applications, performance monitoring alongside error tracking, alerting a team when a deploy introduces a spike in errors, tracking errors across multiple projects in one account. Of those, error and exception monitoring for web applications and performance monitoring alongside error tracking are not what Elastic APM is typically brought in for.
- What can Airbrake do that Elastic APM cannot?
- Airbrake covers Deploy tracking, Custom notifications. Elastic APM covers Transaction tracing, Custom metrics. Both handle Error tracking, Performance monitoring, API, Webhooks.