Software · head to head
Raygun vs Better Stack
Better Stack
Software
AI-native observability and incident response platform.
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Each has a real cost: Raygun crash Reporting error data is retained for 180 days and Real User Monitoring sessions for only 60 days; longer retention is Enterprise only; Better Stack pricing model combines multiple separate line items (bundles, incident management, monitoring, status pages), making total cost unpredictable until all services are selected
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Raygun and Better Stack actually diverge.
| Attribute | Raygun | Better Stack |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | usage-based | freemium |
| Platforms | Web, Api | Web, iOS, Android, API, Self-hosted |
| Founded | 2011 | Unknown |
Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), 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 Raygun
- Crash reporting
- Real user monitoring
- Performance tracking
- Source maps
- API
- Webhooks
- REST
- Web support
Only in Better Stack
Nothing recorded that Raygun does not also cover.
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Raygun
- Crash and error reporting for web, mobile and backend applicationsnot Better Stack
- Real user monitoring of front end page load and session performancenot Better Stack
- Application performance monitoring with request level tracesnot Better Stack
Better Stack
- Cost-conscious teams looking to replace Datadog loggingnot Raygun
- Companies requiring integrated uptime monitoring and incident managementnot Raygun
- Teams adopting AI-assisted incident response and root cause analysisnot Raygun
- Organisations needing real-time user monitoring with session replaynot Raygun
- Infrastructure teams using eBPF-based distributed tracingnot Raygun
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Raygun
- Crash Reporting error data is retained for 180 days and Real User Monitoring sessions for only 60 days; longer retention is Enterprise only
- Crash Reporting, Real User Monitoring and APM are billed as three separate products, each metered on its own unit of errors, sessions or traces
- A Real User Monitoring session ends after 30 minutes of inactivity, so a single visit spanning breaks is billed as several sessions
- Usage beyond the plan allowance is billed on demand at $0.001 per error and $0.002 per session or trace
- Enterprise plan pricing is custom with no published rate
Better Stack
- Pricing model combines multiple separate line items (bundles, incident management, monitoring, status pages), making total cost unpredictable until all services are selected
- Transactional monitoring (Playwright-based) billed separately at $1 per 100 minutes
- On-call and reporting features require additional per-user fees on top of base telemetry bundle
- Agentic AI SRE features billed at $5 per million tokens, creating variable costs for AI-driven analysis
- SSO and advanced security features reserved for Enterprise tier with custom pricing
Pricing, plan by plan
Raygun
Free- FreeFree
- Crash reporting
- Real user monitoring
- Performance tracking
Better Stack
Free- FreeFree
- 10 monitors and heartbeats
- 1 status page
- Limited log, trace, metric and web event allocations
- Nano$25/month
- Core telemetry bundle
- Log management
- Trace management
- Micro$100/month
- Higher telemetry limits than Nano
- All Nano features
- Mega$500/month
- Premium telemetry allocation
- All lower-tier features
Which should you pick?
Choose Raygun if
- You need crash reporting.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Web, Api.
- You also want real user monitoring.
Choose Better Stack if
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Web, iOS, Android, API, Self-hosted.
Questions people ask
- Is Raygun or Better Stack better?
- Neither clearly leads. Raygun starts at Free and Better Stack at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Raygun or Better Stack?
- Raygun starts at Free and Better Stack at Free.
- Does Raygun or Better Stack run on more platforms?
- Raygun runs on Web, Api. Better Stack runs on Web, iOS, Android, API, Self-hosted.
- Can I use Raygun for free?
- Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
- What is Raygun best used for?
- Raygun is most often used for crash and error reporting for web, mobile and backend applications, real user monitoring of front end page load and session performance, application performance monitoring with request level traces. Of those, crash and error reporting for web, mobile and backend applications and real user monitoring of front end page load and session performance are not what Better Stack is typically brought in for.
- What can Raygun do that Better Stack cannot?
- Raygun covers Crash reporting, Real user monitoring, Performance tracking, Source maps.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Better Stack: How much cheaper is Better Stack than Datadog?
Better Stack claims to be 30 times cheaper than Datadog, with pricing structured to allow customers to ingest up to 80 times more data for the same budget compared to Datadog.
SourceBetter Stack: What mobile platforms does Better Stack support?
Better Stack offers native mobile apps for both iOS and Android.
SourceBetter Stack: Does Better Stack support Sentry SDKs?
Yes. Better Stack's error tracking is compatible with Sentry SDKs for seamless integration.
Source