Errbit review: a free, self-hosted, open-source error catcher built on Rails and MongoDB, compatible with the Airbrake API. Features, setup, and alternatives.
Errbit is an open-source, self-hosted error-catching server designed to collect and manage exceptions reported by other applications. It is built with Ruby on Rails and stores all captured error data in MongoDB, giving teams a self-managed alternative to hosted error-monitoring services.
The defining feature of Errbit is that it is Airbrake API compliant. Any application already instrumented with an Airbrake-compatible notifier library, across Ruby, PHP, Python, Java, JavaScript, and other ecosystems, can send its exceptions to a self-hosted Errbit server simply by pointing the client at a new endpoint and API key, without changing application code.
Errbit groups incoming error notices into fingerprinted error records based on the error class, message, backtrace, component, action, and environment, so recurring occurrences of the same bug appear as one item rather than flooding the dashboard with duplicates.
Beyond core error capture, Errbit supports GitHub, Google, and LDAP authentication for dashboard access, can create GitHub issues directly from an error record when an app is linked to a repository, and follows twelve-factor configuration principles so nearly every setting is controlled through environment variables, which suits containerized deployment with the official Docker image.
Errbit is released under the permissive MIT License and is entirely free to use, modify, and redistribute, including for commercial purposes. There is no vendor subscription, seat fee, or usage-based charge from the project itself.
The only real cost is infrastructure: teams need to run the Rails application and a MongoDB database somewhere, whether on their own servers, a container platform, or a cloud provider, so total cost of ownership depends entirely on self-hosting choices rather than a pricing tier.
Errbit is an open-source, self-hosted error-catching server built with Ruby on Rails and MongoDB that collects and manages exceptions reported by applications, functioning as a self-hosted alternative to the Airbrake service.
Yes. Errbit is released under the MIT License, so it can be downloaded, self-hosted, modified, and used commercially at no cost. The only expense is the infrastructure needed to run it.
Yes. Because Errbit implements the Airbrake API, applications using any Airbrake-compatible notifier library, including those for PHP, Python, Java, and JavaScript, can send error notices to a self-hosted Errbit server.
Errbit is a Ruby on Rails application that stores all its data, including apps, users, and captured error notices, in MongoDB. It is commonly deployed using its official Docker image.
Errbit generates a fingerprint for each incoming notice based on the error class, message, full backtrace, component or controller, action, and environment name, so repeated occurrences of the same underlying bug are grouped together in the dashboard.
Airbrake, Sentry, Rollbar, Bugsnag, and Honeybadger are primarily hosted commercial error-monitoring services with broader feature sets. Errbit differentiates itself by being fully open source, free under the MIT License, and designed specifically to be self-hosted while remaining compatible with Airbrake's client libraries.