Airbrake vs Errbit

Airbrake is a paid, managed error and performance monitoring platform with lightweight APM, deployment tracking, and vendor support behind it. Errbit is a…

Best for Airbrake: Teams that want managed error and performance monitoring with lightweight APM, deployment tracking, SSO, and usage caps, and are willing to pay starting at $19/month for that convenience and vendor support.
Best for Errbit: Teams that want a completely free, self-hosted error catcher under the MIT license, and are comfortable running their own Ruby/MongoDB infrastructure (via Docker or source) without vendor SLAs.

At a Glance

 AirbrakeErrbit
Primary categoryDevOpsDevOps
RatingNot documentedNot documented
Pricing modelFree trial + paid plansOpen Source
Starting price$19/monthFree
Free planNot documentedNot documented
Free trialYesNot documented
PlatformsWebWeb
Team collaborationNot documentedNot documented
AI featuresNot documentedNot documented
Public APIYesYes

Key Differences

Hosting Model & Cost

Airbrake: Airbrake is a paid managed SaaS starting at $19/month (Dev + Errors, monthly) or $17/month billed annually.

Errbit: Errbit is free and open source under the MIT license, but must be self-hosted on your own Ruby/MongoDB infrastructure with no managed cloud option.

Managed hosting trades money for convenience and support; self-hosting trades operational effort for zero licensing cost.

Feature Depth

Airbrake: Airbrake includes lightweight APM (response times, user satisfaction), deployment tracking, SSO, and usage caps.

Errbit: Errbit's own listed cons state it lacks the performance monitoring/APM features of paid alternatives like Airbrake, focusing on error catching only.

Teams needing performance data alongside errors, not just error catching, need the broader feature set.

API Compatibility & Migration

Airbrake: Airbrake is the original commercial service that clients integrate against directly.

Errbit: Errbit is explicitly Airbrake API compliant, so existing Airbrake gem/SDK users can redirect to a self-hosted Errbit instance with no code changes.

Drop-in API compatibility removes migration risk and lock-in for teams that want to move between the two.

Support & SLA

Airbrake: Airbrake is backed by LogicMonitor for stable ownership and presumably commercial support.

Errbit: Errbit has no official vendor support or SLA, relying instead on its active open-source community with thousands of GitHub stars and regular releases.

Production-critical error tracking often needs a support contract or SLA to fall back on.

Multi-Language Reach

Airbrake: Airbrake ships official SDKs for JavaScript, Python, Ruby, Java, Go, PHP, .NET, and other languages.

Errbit: Errbit's server is built specifically on Ruby and MongoDB, but accepts traffic from any existing Airbrake-compatible client across those same languages.

The server-side technology stack determines self-hosting complexity even though client compatibility is shared.

Feature-by-Feature

Error Tracking Core

FeatureAirbrakeErrbit
Real-time error catching & groupingAvailableAvailable
Line-of-code error precisionAvailableNot documented
Deployment trackingAvailableNot documented
Multi-language client supportAvailableAvailable

Hosting & Ownership

FeatureAirbrakeErrbit
Managed SaaS hostingAvailableUnavailable
Self-hosted deploymentNot documentedAvailable
Open-source licenseNot documentedAvailable
Docker deployment supportNot documentedAvailable
Vendor support / SLAAvailableUnavailable

Advanced/Paid Features

FeatureAirbrakeErrbit
Lightweight APM / performance monitoringAvailableUnavailable
Single sign-on (SSO)AvailableNot documented
Usage spending capsAvailableNot documented
Published pricingAvailableAvailable

Pricing Compared

Starting price reflects the lowest paid tier, not the full cost for every team size or usage level.

Airbrake

Dev + errors — $19/month monthly ($17/mo annual)
Basic + errors — $38/month monthly ($34/mo annual)
Pro + errors — $76/month monthly ($68/mo annual)

Errbit

Open Source — Free N/A

Pros & Cons

Airbrake

Pros

  • Broad language and framework SDK coverage
  • Agentless, lightweight installation
  • Deployment tracking helps pinpoint which release caused a regression
  • Backed by LogicMonitor's observability platform since 2021

Cons

  • Pricing tiers can get complex with separate error-volume and user-based plans
  • Performance monitoring is billed separately from error monitoring
  • Less full-featured than dedicated APM/observability suites for infrastructure-level monitoring

Errbit

Pros

  • Free and open source under the MIT License with no seat or usage fees
  • Drop-in replacement for Airbrake thanks to full API compatibility with its notifier libraries
  • Full control over error data since it stays on infrastructure the team manages
  • Familiar Rails and MongoDB stack for teams already operating Ruby applications, plus an official Docker image for easier deployment

Cons

  • Requires ongoing self-hosting and operations effort, including maintaining a Rails application and a MongoDB database
  • Lacks the broader feature set of modern commercial competitors, such as performance monitoring and release tracking
  • Best suited to teams with existing Ruby on Rails and MongoDB operational experience, so the setup can be less approachable for others
  • Community-driven maintenance pace can be slower and less predictable than a vendor-backed roadmap

Use Cases

Choose Airbrake: Teams that want managed error and performance monitoring with lightweight APM, deployment tracking, SSO, and usage caps, and are willing to pay starting at $19/month for that convenience and vendor support.
Choose Errbit: Teams that want a completely free, self-hosted error catcher under the MIT license, and are comfortable running their own Ruby/MongoDB infrastructure (via Docker or source) without vendor SLAs.
Need both: A team could start on Errbit self-hosted for early-stage error tracking at zero cost, then migrate to Airbrake's managed service using the same Airbrake-compatible client libraries once they need APM, deployment tracking, or vendor support without further code changes.

Airbrake

  • Production error tracking — Catch and triage application errors in real time across web and mobile apps.
  • Release quality monitoring — Correlate error spikes with specific deployments to catch bad releases quickly.

Errbit

  • Self-hosted exception monitoring for Rails applications — Teams running Ruby on Rails services deploy Errbit alongside their applications to capture unhandled exceptions and view grouped error reports in one dashboard, without sending data to a third-party vendor.
  • Replacing a hosted Airbrake subscription — Organizations already using Airbrake-compatible notifier libraries switch their error reporting endpoint to a self-hosted Errbit server to eliminate subscription costs while keeping the same client-side integration.
  • Centralized error collection for polyglot services — Because Errbit accepts notices from any Airbrake-compatible client, teams running services in multiple languages point each one at a shared Errbit instance to consolidate error visibility in a single place.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I migrate from Airbrake to Errbit?

Yes — Errbit is Airbrake API compliant, so existing Airbrake gem or SDK integrations can point at a self-hosted Errbit instance with no code changes.

How much does each cost?

Airbrake starts at $19/month (Dev + Errors, monthly) or $17/month annual; Errbit is completely free and open source under the MIT license, though it requires self-hosting.

Does Errbit include performance monitoring like Airbrake?

No — Errbit's documented cons state it lacks the performance monitoring/APM features of paid alternatives like Airbrake, focusing on error catching.

Who hosts and supports each tool?

Airbrake is a managed SaaS backed by LogicMonitor; Errbit must be self-hosted (Ruby/MongoDB, deployable via Docker) with no official vendor support or SLA, relying instead on its open-source community.

Is Errbit actively maintained?

Yes, per the available facts it has an active commit history and regular releases on GitHub with thousands of stars.

Does Airbrake offer a free trial?

Yes, Airbrake offers a free trial with access to all features including unlimited errors and performance monitoring events; Errbit has no trial because it is free and open source outright.

Read the full Airbrake review · Read the full Errbit review