Papertrail

Create alerts, search logs, and integrate with popular tools for deep insights into application performance.

Free plan available
No credit card

What is Papertrail?

Papertrail is a cloud-based log management service that collects, stores, and analyses logs from your applications and infrastructure. It works with servers, containers, cloud platforms, and custom applications, giving you a central place to see what's happening across your systems. The tool helps teams troubleshoot issues faster by making logs searchable and filterable, whilst also sending alerts when specific problems occur. It's particularly useful for developers and operations teams who need to monitor application performance without managing their own log storage infrastructure.

Key features

Log aggregation

Collects logs from multiple sources into one searchable archive

Real-time search

Query logs across your entire system using a straightforward search syntax

Custom alerts

Set up notifications based on log patterns or error conditions

Integration support

Connects with tools like Slack, PagerDuty, Datadog, and others for workflow integration

Log retention policies

Configure how long logs are stored based on your needs

User access controls

Manage who can view and search logs in your account

Pros & cons

Advantages

Simple setup with minimal configuration required for most common applications
Affordable pricing with a useful free tier that covers small projects
Good integration ecosystem reduces the need to manually review logs
Search interface is intuitive enough for non-technical team members to use

Limitations

Log retention limits on lower pricing tiers may require upgrading for long-term historical analysis
Pricing can become expensive at scale if you're generating very large log volumes