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Elastic APM vs Honeybadger

Elastic APM logo

Elastic APM

Software

Application Performance Monitoring from Elastic

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Honeybadger logo

Honeybadger

Software

Error and Uptime Monitoring for Developers

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: 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; Honeybadger the free Developer plan is limited to one user, 5,000 errors per month, 50 MB per day of logging and one uptime monitor
  • They diverge on capability: Elastic APM covers Performance monitoring, Honeybadger covers Uptime monitoring.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Elastic APM and Honeybadger actually diverge.

Attributes where Elastic APM and Honeybadger differ
AttributeElastic APMHoneybadger
Pricing modelopen-sourcesubscription
Founded20112012

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), platforms (Web, Api), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Unknown).

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 Elastic APM

  • Performance monitoring
  • Transaction tracing
  • Custom metrics

Only in Honeybadger

  • Uptime monitoring
  • Status pages
  • Incident management

Both cover

  • Error tracking
  • API
  • Webhooks
  • REST
  • Web support
  • Api support

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Elastic APM

  • Distributed tracing across microservicesnot Honeybadger
  • Auto-instrumenting Java, .NET, Python, Go, Node.js, Ruby, PHP and C++ servicesnot Honeybadger
  • OpenTelemetry-native collection through the Elastic distributionsnot Honeybadger
  • Correlating latency and errors with machine learningnot Honeybadger
  • Monitoring LLM calls alongside application tracesnot Honeybadger

Honeybadger

  • Exception and error tracking for Ruby, Elixir, PHP, Python and JavaScript applicationsnot Elastic APM
  • Uptime and cron heartbeat monitoring alongside error datanot Elastic APM
  • Publishing a public status page for a small SaaS productnot Elastic APM

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

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

Honeybadger

  • The free Developer plan is limited to one user, 5,000 errors per month, 50 MB per day of logging and one uptime monitor
  • SSO, unlimited teams and priority support require the Business plan at $80 per month
  • Error data retention is 15 days on Developer, 90 days on Team and 180 days on Business
  • Log and event retention is 7 days on the free plan and up to 30 days on Team
  • Premium integrations including Jira, PagerDuty, SMS and webhooks are excluded from the free Developer plan
  • S3 archiving of Insights events is not available on the Developer plan
  • Uptime check frequency is capped at 5 minutes on Developer and 2 minutes on Team; 1 minute checks require Business

Pricing, plan by plan

Elastic APM

Free
  • FreeFree
    • Performance monitoring
    • Error tracking
    • Transaction tracing

Honeybadger

Free
  • FreeFree
    • Error tracking
    • Uptime monitoring
    • Status pages

Which should you pick?

Choose Elastic APM if

  • You need performance monitoring.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, Api.
  • You also want transaction tracing.
Elastic APM review

Choose Honeybadger if

  • You need uptime monitoring.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, Api.
  • You also want status pages.
Honeybadger review

Questions people ask

Is Elastic APM or Honeybadger better?
Neither clearly leads. Elastic APM starts at Free and Honeybadger at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Elastic APM or Honeybadger?
Elastic APM starts at Free and Honeybadger at Free.
Does Elastic APM or Honeybadger run on more platforms?
Both run on Web, Api, so platform support will not decide this one for you.
Can I use Elastic APM for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Elastic APM best used for?
Elastic APM is most often used for distributed tracing across microservices, auto-instrumenting java, .net, python, go, node.js, ruby, php and c++ services, opentelemetry-native collection through the elastic distributions, correlating latency and errors with machine learning. Of those, distributed tracing across microservices and auto-instrumenting java, .net, python, go, node.js, ruby, php and c++ services are not what Honeybadger is typically brought in for.
What can Elastic APM do that Honeybadger cannot?
Elastic APM covers Performance monitoring, Transaction tracing, Custom metrics. Honeybadger covers Uptime monitoring, Status pages, Incident management. Both handle Error tracking, API, Webhooks, REST.
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