Softwr

Log Management · head to head

Papertrail vs Elastic APM

Papertrail logo

Papertrail

Log Management

Cloud-Hosted Log Management

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Elastic APM logo

Elastic APM

Log Management

Application Performance Monitoring from Elastic

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Papertrail log Observability starts at $5.00 per GB per month; 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: Papertrail covers Log aggregation, Elastic APM covers Performance monitoring.

Where they differ

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

Attributes where Papertrail and Elastic APM differ
AttributePapertrailElastic APM
Pricing modelsubscriptionopen-source

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), platforms (Web, Api), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Log Management), founded (2011).

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 Papertrail

  • Log aggregation
  • Real-time tail
  • Saved searches
  • System alerts

Only in Elastic APM

  • Performance monitoring
  • Error tracking
  • Transaction tracing
  • Custom metrics

Both cover

  • API
  • Webhooks
  • REST
  • Web support
  • Api support

What people use each for

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

Papertrail

  • Aggregating syslog and application logs from many hosts into one searchable streamnot Elastic APM
  • Tail-and-search style troubleshooting during incidentsnot Elastic APM
  • Long-term log archiving to Amazon S3 for later analysisnot Elastic APM

Elastic APM

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

Where each one falls short

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

Papertrail

  • Log Observability starts at $5.00 per GB per month
  • Usage beyond the plan volume is billed at a 30% higher price per GB and is capped at 200% extra
  • Transferred volume is measured as message length plus 50 bytes of metadata per message, so metadata counts against the quota

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

Papertrail

Free
  • FreeFree
    • Log aggregation
    • Real-time tail
    • Saved searches

Elastic APM

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

Which should you pick?

Choose Papertrail if

  • You need log aggregation.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, Api.
  • You also want real-time tail.
Papertrail review

Choose Elastic APM if

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

Questions people ask

Is Papertrail or Elastic APM better?
Neither clearly leads. Papertrail 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, Papertrail or Elastic APM?
Papertrail starts at Free and Elastic APM at Free.
Does Papertrail 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 Papertrail for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Papertrail best used for?
Papertrail is most often used for aggregating syslog and application logs from many hosts into one searchable stream, tail-and-search style troubleshooting during incidents, long-term log archiving to amazon s3 for later analysis. Of those, aggregating syslog and application logs from many hosts into one searchable stream and tail-and-search style troubleshooting during incidents are not what Elastic APM is typically brought in for.
What can Papertrail do that Elastic APM cannot?
Papertrail covers Log aggregation, Real-time tail, Saved searches, System alerts. Elastic APM covers Performance monitoring, Error tracking, Transaction tracing, Custom metrics. Both handle API, Webhooks, REST, Web support.
ShareXLinkedInRedditWhatsAppEmail

Related pages

More on Papertrail

More on Elastic APM

Keep looking

Other head to heads