Software · head to head
Rollbar vs ELK Stack
The short version
- Each has a real cost: Rollbar the free plan allows 5,000 occurrences a month with 30 day retention; ELK Stack the free Basic self managed subscription excludes machine learning, alerting, single sign on via SAML or OpenID Connect, LDAP and Active Directory authentication, field and document level security, searchable snapshots and cross cluster replication
- They diverge on capability: Rollbar covers Error tracking, ELK Stack covers Full-text search.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Rollbar and ELK Stack actually diverge.
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 Rollbar
- Error tracking
- Real-time alerts
- Error grouping
- Source maps
Only in ELK Stack
- Full-text search
- Data visualization
- Log aggregation
- Time-series analytics
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.
Rollbar
- Tracking application errors and exceptions across deploymentsnot ELK Stack
- Grouping and alerting on production error occurrencesnot ELK Stack
ELK Stack
- Centralised log search and analytics over Elasticsearchnot Rollbar
- Dashboards and visualisation of machine data in Kibananot Rollbar
- Self managing a search and observability cluster on your own hardwarenot Rollbar
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Rollbar
- The free plan allows 5,000 occurrences a month with 30 day retention
- Retention is a paid ladder rather than a setting, at up to 90 days on Essentials and up to 180 on Advanced
- Advanced alerting, the RQL analytics query language and SCIM provisioning are excluded from the free plan
- Enterprise requires a $4M annual plan minimum
- No price is published for Essentials or Advanced, so only the free tier has a visible cost
ELK Stack
- The free Basic self managed subscription excludes machine learning, alerting, single sign on via SAML or OpenID Connect, LDAP and Active Directory authentication, field and document level security, searchable snapshots and cross cluster replication
- Cross cluster operations require the same subscription tier on every cluster involved
- The 99.95 percent monthly uptime SLA applies only to the Platinum and Enterprise subscription tiers
- Three deployment models are priced on three different bases: resource based for Cloud Hosted, usage based for Serverless and licence based on nodes and RAM for self managed
- Elastic Cloud Serverless does not yet support traffic filtering, cross project search or bring your own key
- The pricing page publishes no rate for any tier
Pricing, plan by plan
Rollbar
Free- FreeFree
- Error tracking
- Real-time alerts
- Error grouping
ELK Stack
Free- FreeFree
- Full-text search
- Data visualization
- Log aggregation
Which should you pick?
Choose Rollbar if
- You need error tracking.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Web, Api.
- You also want real-time alerts.
Choose ELK Stack if
- You need full-text search.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Web, Api.
- You also want data visualization.
Questions people ask
- Is Rollbar or ELK Stack better?
- Neither clearly leads. Rollbar starts at Free and ELK Stack at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Rollbar or ELK Stack?
- Rollbar starts at Free and ELK Stack at Free.
- Does Rollbar or ELK Stack run on more platforms?
- Both run on Web, Api, so platform support will not decide this one for you.
- Can I use Rollbar for free?
- Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
- What is Rollbar best used for?
- Rollbar is most often used for tracking application errors and exceptions across deployments, grouping and alerting on production error occurrences. Of those, tracking application errors and exceptions across deployments and grouping and alerting on production error occurrences are not what ELK Stack is typically brought in for.
- What can Rollbar do that ELK Stack cannot?
- Rollbar covers Error tracking, Real-time alerts, Error grouping, Source maps. ELK Stack covers Full-text search, Data visualization, Log aggregation, Time-series analytics. Both handle API, Webhooks, REST, Web support.