Best Papertrail Alternatives (2026) - Free, Self-Hosted, and SaaS
TL;DR
- Unified and Deployment Flexibility: SigNoz provides an OpenTelemetry-native platform that unifies logs, metrics, and traces. It offers the flexibility to use a managed cloud service or self-host the infrastructure, maintaining complete control over data residency.
- Feature-Rich (only SaaS): Datadog is a comprehensive observability suite for teams that prefer a fully managed SaaS experience. It offers deep integration across infrastructure and applications, but can be expensive at scale and does not offer self-hosting options.
- Simpler Log-Centric Alternatives: For teams focusing primarily on application logs, tools like Seq treat logs as structured JSON objects. This allows for precise, property-based filtering without the complexity of a full-stack observability platform.
For years, Papertrail was a go-to for engineering teams because it made live log viewing simple. You could open a browser tab, tail events as they happened, and search what your app was doing without building a complex logging pipeline.
The landscape for log management has shifted. SolarWinds, which acquired Papertrail in 2015, now provides a documented migration path toward SolarWinds Observability (SWO). For many teams, this move changes the scope and pricing of their monitoring stack, making it a natural time to evaluate Papertrail replacement.
This guide compares Papertrail alternatives across SaaS and self-hosted options. We focus on how these tools handle correlation (linking logs to traces and metrics), pricing predictability, and support for open standards like OpenTelemetry.
How we rank Papertrail alternatives
We evaluated these tools based on two primary decisions engineering teams face in 2026:
- Context vs. Silos: Does the tool treat a log as a static line of text, or does it link that log to the metrics and traces that explain why an error occurred?
- Control vs. Convenience: Do you need a fully managed SaaS to save time, or a self-hosted setup to ensure logs never leave your infrastructure for security and cost reasons?
Beyond these categories, we looked for support for Open Standards. Modern stacks are moving away from proprietary agents. Tools that natively support OpenTelemetry (OTel) ranked higher because they allow you to switch backends without rewriting application code.
Category 1: Unified, OTel-Native, and Flexible Deployment
The platforms in this category meet all parameters in our ranking framework. They provide unified context by correlating logs with other telemetry and offer the flexibility to choose where your data resides.
SigNoz
SigNoz is an all-in-one observability platform built from the ground up to be OpenTelemetry native. It unifies logs, metrics, and distributed traces into a single interface, making it a suitable upgrade for teams that find Papertrail’s text-only logs too limiting.
Key Features
- Unified Telemetry: SigNoz natively correlates logs with traces. When you find an error in your logs, you can pivot to the exact trace of that request in one click.
- Analytical Storage: It uses columnar storage, enabling aggregate queries and dashboards to run faster than with traditional text-only indexes.
- Native OTel Support: There is no proprietary agent, which means you use standard OpenTelemetry collectors or SDKs to send data.
Why consider SigNoz over Papertrail?
SigNoz solves the context-switching problem that troubles Papertrail users. In Papertrail, a log is an isolated event. When your logs include trace/span identifiers (or after configuring correlation), SigNoz lets you navigate between logs, traces, and related signals for faster root-cause analysis. This allows you to move from reactive log searching to proactive analysis.
On pricing, SigNoz is significantly more predictable. While Papertrail's entry plans can often reach higher effective rates per GB, SigNoz Cloud lists ingestion at $0.30 per GB. For teams with high data volumes, the cost difference can be substantial. You can also compare SigNoz pricing against other major vendors to see the long-term impact on your budget.
Get Started with SigNoz
You can choose between various deployment options in SigNoz. The easiest way to get started with SigNoz is SigNoz Cloud. We offer a 30-day free trial account with access to all features.
Those with data privacy concerns who can’t send their data outside their infrastructure can sign up for either the enterprise self-hosted or BYOC offering.
Those with the expertise to manage SigNoz themselves, or who want to start with a free, self-hosted option, can use our community edition.
SolarWinds Observability (SWO)
SWO is the official SaaS successor to Papertrail. Unlike Papertrail's singular focus on logs, SWO is a full-stack platform that attempts to bridge the gap between logs and infrastructure health.
Key Features
- Full-Stack Correlation: Automatically connects logs to server metrics and application traces.
- AIOps Anomaly Detection: Uses machine learning to automatically surface issues (like sudden latency spikes) without manual searching.
Why consider SWO over Papertrail?
The pricing model is a significant departure from Papertrail. SaaS Log Observability starts at approximately $5 per GB per month. If you use the self-hosted version, pricing is typically node-based, starting at around $7.42 per node per month. For a team that only needs simple logging, this can result in a confusing price increase compared to Papertrail's volume-based model.
Category 2: Unified but Only SaaS
These tools offer highly integrated environments with advanced automated insights that address the first problem of silos, but they are available only as managed services, with limited deployment flexibility.
Datadog
Datadog is a widely used SaaS observability platform that connects logs, infrastructure monitoring, and APM traces. It is built for enterprises that want a single vendor to handle every aspect of their telemetry.
Key Features
- Contextual Pivoting: Each log line includes tags that let you jump to the related host metrics or traces.
- Watchdog AI: An automated engine that attempts to detect anomalies in log patterns before they trigger manual alerts.
Why consider Datadog over Papertrail?
While Datadog is feature-rich, its billing model is often a major pain point. It uses a two-part tariff in which you pay separately for ingestion ($0.10/GB) and a much higher fee for indexing. This often forces teams to choose between visibility and cost. If you don't index a log to save money, it isn't searchable during an incident, which defeats the purpose of centralised logging. You can read more about these billing caveats in our detailed Datadog pricing breakdown.
Better Stack
Better Stack upgrades the traditional Papertrail workflow by combining log management, uptime monitoring, and incident response. It is designed for developers who want a fast, high-fidelity live tail experience.
Key Features
- SQL Querying: You can filter and aggregate logs using standard SQL syntax instead of proprietary languages.
- Integrated Uptime: When a service goes down, the alert links directly to the relevant logs.
Why consider Betterstack over Papertrail?
Better Stack provides 3 GB per month for free with 3 days of retention. Beyond that, ingestion and retention are priced separately. As of Jan 2026, ingestion costs range from $0.10 to $0.35 per GB depending on the data region, while retention is billed per GB-month. This model is more transparent than Papertrail, but requires careful monitoring as your data volume grows.
Category 3: Self-Host Flexibility but Disparate
These tools provide maximum control over data residency and hardware utilisation, but they often require more engineering bandwidth to maintain.
Grafana Loki
Loki is a log aggregation system inspired by Prometheus. It is built for high-efficiency storage because it only indexes metadata labels rather than the full text of every log line.
Key Features
- Label-Based Indexing: By only indexing tags like
apporenv, Loki keeps its index small and storage costs low. - LogQL: A query language that shares syntax with PromQL, making it familiar to teams already using Prometheus for metrics.
Why consider Grafana over Papertrail?
Grafana Cloud Free includes up to 50 GB of ingested logs per month with 14-day retention. If you self-host, your costs are tied to your own object storage (like S3). The trade-off is that Loki is not a full-text search engine. If you need to search for a specific string inside a message that hasn't been labelled, queries can be slower because the system must scan the raw data.
Elastic Stack (ELK)
The Elastic Stack (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana) remains a standard for self-hosted log analytics. It is built for organisations that need complex, full-text search capabilities across massive datasets.
Key Features
- Kibana Dashboards: The gold standard for log visualisation, allowing you to build complex heatmaps and trend reports.
- Flexible Ingest: Logstash allows you to parse and enrich log data before it is stored.
Why consider ELK over Papertrail?
Self-hosting ELK shifts your costs from vendor billing to infrastructure management. While you avoid per-GB ingestion fees, you must pay for the CPU, RAM, and storage required to keep the cluster healthy. For many teams, the operational overhead of managing Elasticsearch is a significant burden compared to the set and forget nature of Papertrail.
Category 4: Simpler Log-Centric Alternatives
These tools are best for teams that want a simpler upgrade to their current logging workflow without moving to a full observability platform.
SolarWinds Loggly
Loggly is the analytical cousin of Papertrail, designed to structure and visualise raw log data. It serves as an upgrade for teams who want to understand log trends over time rather than just watching a live stream.
Key Features
- Field Explorer: A clickable menu that lets you navigate logs by their structured fields.
- Automated Parsing: It automatically breaks down standard formats, such as Nginx or Apache logs, upon ingestion.
Why consider Loggly over Papertrail?
Loggly is better for analysing historical trends than Papertrail, but it still operates as a separate silo from your traces and metrics. Pricing is volume-based, typically starting around $79 per month (as of Jan, 2026).
Graylog
Graylog is a centralised log management tool that provides a structured interface for log analysis. It is often preferred by teams that need better organisation than Papertrail’s flat list.
Key Features
- Streams: You can route logs into specific categories for better organisation and access control.
- Pipeline Processing: This allows you to modify or enrich log data (e.g., adding geo-location) in real time.
Why consider Graylog over Papertrail?
Graylog offers an open-source edition that is free to use. However, it lacks the native correlation with traces and metrics found in unified platforms like SigNoz. It is an excellent logs-only choice but may lead to data silos as your monitoring needs mature.
Seq
Seq is a self-hosted server built specifically for structured application logs. It treats each log event as a JSON object rather than a string.
Key Features
- Property-Based Filtering: You can filter by specific application variables, such as
OrderTotal > 100. - Signals: These are saved filters that act as real-time alerts.
Why consider Seq over Papertrail?
Seq offers a free individual license with limits. Paid tiers for small teams start around $790 per year but are not unlimited. It is heavily optimised for .NET environments, but it works with any language that can send JSON via HTTP.
Summary: Top Papertrail Alternatives
| Tool | Best For | Key Differentiator |
|---|---|---|
| SigNoz | Unified OTel & Portability | Native OpenTelemetry support(links logs to traces and metrics in one UI). |
| Datadog | Feature-rich SaaS | Wide integration ecosystem(separates ingestion and indexing costs). |
| Grafana Loki | Cost-efficient storage | Indexing only metadata labels to reduce storage overhead. |
| Better Stack | Live Tail & SQL | Combines SQL log querying with built-in uptime monitoring. |
| ELK Stack | Full-Text Search Control | High customisation of indexing and dashboards via self-hosting. |
| Seq | Structured App Logs | Property-based filtering by treating logs as data objects (JSON). |
Hope we answered all your questions regarding Papertrail alternatives. If you have more questions, feel free to use the SigNoz AI chatbot or join our Slack community.
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