Log Management · head to head
Elastic vs Airbrake
The short version
- Only Airbrake has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
- Each has a real cost: Elastic the 99.95% monthly uptime SLA is only offered on the Platinum and Enterprise subscription tiers of Hosted deployments, not on lower tiers, per elastic.co, August 2026; Airbrake data retention is 30 days on every plan, including the $799 a month Business tier
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Elastic and Airbrake actually diverge.
Identical on both: 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 Elastic
Nothing recorded that Airbrake does not also cover.
Only in Airbrake
- Error tracking
- Performance monitoring
- Deploy tracking
- Custom notifications
- API
- Webhooks
- REST
- Web support
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Elastic
No use cases recorded yet. See the Elastic review.
Airbrake
- Error and exception monitoring for web applicationsnot Elastic
- Performance monitoring alongside error trackingnot Elastic
- Alerting a team when a deploy introduces a spike in errorsnot Elastic
- Tracking errors across multiple projects in one accountnot Elastic
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Elastic
- The 99.95% monthly uptime SLA is only offered on the Platinum and Enterprise subscription tiers of Hosted deployments, not on lower tiers, per elastic.co, August 2026
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
Pricing, plan by plan
Elastic
On requestNo published plan breakdown. See the Elastic review.
Airbrake
Free- FreeFree
- Error tracking
- Performance monitoring
- Deploy tracking
Which should you pick?
Choose Elastic if
Nothing in the data separates Elastic from Airbrake on the points above - pick on price and on how each one feels to use.
Choose Airbrake if
- You need error tracking.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Web, Api.
- You also want performance monitoring.
Questions people ask
- Is Elastic or Airbrake better?
- Neither clearly leads. Elastic starts at On request and Airbrake at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Elastic or Airbrake?
- Airbrake has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for Elastic and Free for Airbrake.
- Does Elastic or Airbrake run on more platforms?
- Elastic runs on Web. Airbrake runs on Web, Api.
- Can I use Airbrake for free?
- Yes. Airbrake has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Elastic starts at On request.
- What can Elastic do that Airbrake cannot?
- Airbrake covers Error tracking, Performance monitoring, Deploy tracking, Custom notifications.