Logging · pricing
Papertrail pricing
Papertrail publishes a single tier. Below is what it costs, what it covers, and how that compares with the logging tools listed alongside it.
As of 30 August 2026, Papertrail pricing is free. Figures are the vendor's list prices as recorded on this page's last check; the vendor's site is the final word.
- Entry price
- Free
- Model
- Subscription
- Tiers
- 1
- Free tier
- Yes
Papertrail plans, side by side
Every published tier in ascending order of price, with the number of features each one lists. An absence here means the record does not itemise it, not that the tier lacks it.
| Plan | Price | Features listed | Step up from the tier below |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | Free | 3 | Entry tier |
Where Papertrail stops being free
Free, Free
- Log aggregation
- Real-time tail
- Saved searches
No paid tier on record
Papertrail lists a free tier and no priced tier above it in the record we hold.
What the product covers
The full Papertrail feature record, grouped as the catalogue groups it. This is the product as a whole; the record does not map every feature onto a specific tier.
Other
- Log aggregation
- Real-time tail
- Saved searches
- System alerts
Integrations
- API
- Webhooks
- REST
Platform
- Web support
- Api support
People bring Papertrail in 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. If that is not the job you are buying for, the alternatives to Papertrail are worth a look before you commit to a tier.
How that compares in Logging
Too few logging tools in this directory publish a starting price to quote a meaningful median, so the table below is a like-for-like list rather than a ranking.
| Tool | Entry price | Model | Rated | Head to head |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Papertrail (this page) | Free | subscription | - | |
| Cronitor | Free, then $2/monitor/month | Pay-per-monitor plus user seats | - | vs Papertrail |
| Uptime.com | On request | subscription | - | vs Papertrail |
| Traceloop | Free | Freemium with pay-as-you-go enterprise option | - | vs Papertrail |
| Openstatus | Free, then $30/month | - | - | vs Papertrail |
| Healthchecks | Free, then $5/month | Per-job monitoring with fixed tiers | - | vs Papertrail |
| incident.io | Free | subscription | - | vs Papertrail |
Ratings are aggregated from third-party sources and imported with each catalogue entry, they are not reviews hosted on Softwr. How each figure is used is set out on the Papertrail badges page.
Before you pay for Papertrail
Three things this page cannot tell you, and all three change the bill. The record carries a price and a billing period but not the unit - per-seat and flat-rate pricing are indistinguishable in this data, so a five-person team may be looking at five times the figure above. It carries no annual rate, so any discount for paying yearly is not something this page can quote. And it carries no trial length.
What it can tell you is the shape of the ladder: a single tier at Free. Because there is a free tier, the cheapest way to answer the rest is to use it before paying anything.
Papertrail runs on web, api, and is published by Papertrail (Solarwinds) of United States. The full record is on the Papertrail review, and the rest of the category is under best logging tools.
Papertrail pricing questions
- How much does Papertrail cost?
- Papertrail publishes a single tier, Free, at Free.
- Does Papertrail have a free plan?
- Yes. The Free tier costs nothing and covers log aggregation, real-time tail, saved searches.
- Which logging tools can I use without paying?
- 6 of the 8 logging tools listed alongside Papertrail have a free tier: Cronitor, Traceloop, Openstatus, Healthchecks, incident.io.
- What am I actually paying for with Papertrail?
- The record lists 9 features across 3 areas: other, integrations, platform. In practice it is brought in 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.
- Does Papertrail charge per user?
- The record carries a price and a billing period for each of its 1 tiers, but not the unit that price is charged in. Per-seat and flat-rate billing look identical in this data, so check the vendor's page before budgeting for a team.
- Are these Papertrail prices current?
- They are what the catalogue entry holds, refreshed when the entry is. Vendors change pricing without notice and nobody at Softwr re-verifies each tier by hand, so treat this as a structured summary and the vendor's own pricing page as the authority.
- What should I compare Papertrail against before paying?
- The closest logging tools in this directory are Cronitor, Uptime.com, Traceloop, Openstatus. Each has a side-by-side comparison with Papertrail covering price, platforms and features.