Overview
Papertrail is the cloud log management platform of SolarWinds, headquartered in the United States. Papertrail provides real-time log aggregation, fast full-text search, and flexible alerts to help development and operations teams quickly troubleshoot issues. Compared with a full ELK stack, Papertrail is known for being lightweight and easy to use, with onboarding in minutes. After the SolarWinds acquisition in 2016, it became part of the SolarWinds observability product line. This page belongs to the automation tool providers category.
Key Strengths
- Real-time aggregation: Real-time log aggregation across servers and applications.
- Full-text search: Fast search across large log volumes.
- Flexible alerts: Custom rules with multi-channel notifications.
- Framework integrations: Quick integration with major frameworks.
- Team collaboration: Sharing and collaboration for team members.
Product Ecosystem
Log Aggregation
Real-time aggregation of server and application logs.
Full-text Search
Fast search and filtering of logs.
Alerts
Custom alert rules and notifications.
SolarWinds Ecosystem
Synergy with the SolarWinds observability product line.
Limitations
- Less than ELK: Analysis and visualization less comprehensive than ELK.
- Limited retention: Limited data retention.
- Ecosystem dependency: Full capabilities depend on the SolarWinds ecosystem.
Use Cases
- Fast troubleshooting (★★★★★): Onboarding in minutes to quickly locate issues; see the monitoring and alerting guide.
- Lightweight log management (★★★★★): A lightweight log solution without self-hosting ELK.
- Development debugging (★★★★☆): Log search and debugging in development environments.
- Alert monitoring (★★★★☆): Alerts and notifications on abnormal logs; see monitoring and alerting.
- Platform selection (★★★☆☆): Compare with other log platforms; see cloud monitoring services comparison.
Pricing
| Plan | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Papertrail (Free) | Free tier | Limited log volume and retention |
| Papertrail Paid | Usage-based | Tiered pricing by log volume and features |
Note: Papertrail pricing varies by log volume and plan; see the Papertrail official website.
FAQ
- Is Papertrail free? It offers a free tier; paid plans are billed by log volume; compare in cloud monitoring services comparison.
- Papertrail vs ELK? Papertrail is lightweight and easy to use, while ELK is more comprehensive; see Prometheus alert rules design.
- What is the SolarWinds relationship? Papertrail was acquired by SolarWinds in 2016 and became part of its observability product line; see cloud monitoring services comparison.
- Does it support alerts? Yes, with custom rules and multi-channel notifications; see monitoring and alerting.
- Is it complex to onboard? No, onboarding takes minutes with major frameworks; see the monitoring and alerting guide.