Papertrail

Papertrail is a cloud-hosted log management service designed for operations-savvy companies and development teams who need real-time visibility into their infrastructure and application logs without the overhead of managing their own logging stack. Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Austin, Texas, Papertrail was acquired by SolarWinds in April 2015 and now operates as part of the SolarWinds portfolio. The platform is particularly well-suited for teams that want fast setup—typically in minutes—and for less technical staff who can view logs without any SSH or RDP knowledge. With over 50,000 developers reportedly using the service, Papertrail targets organizations that need to aggregate logs from diverse sources including syslog, text log files, MySQL, cloud hosting, Apache, routers and firewalls, Ruby on Rails, Windows events, Tomcat, and Heroku apps, all into a single searchable interface.

Papertrail's core capabilities center on real-time log aggregation, tail and search functionality, and proactive alerting. Users can search through hours of logs typically in seconds using a browser, command-line interface, or API. The platform provides log velocity analytics to troubleshoot spikes in the last 10 minutes or spot trends over two weeks. It supports industry-grade encryption, global retention policies, and granular access controls. Papertrail integrates with common services and offers pre-configured and fully customizable Logstash pipelines to enrich data. The service also provides team visibility features that allow non-technical staff to access logs without direct server access, and includes Single Sign-On (SSO) using LDAP, AD, or SAML. Data centers are available in EU, UK, and US regions, and the platform includes over-usage protection to prevent unexpected billing spikes.

In the log management market, Papertrail holds a 0.15% market share according to 6Sense data, with 326 customers across 10 countries, compared to Splunk's 7.58% share and 16,231 customers. Competitors include Logit.io, Sumo Logic, Splunk, Logentries, Datadog, Graylog, Logz.io, New Relic, and Logstash. Papertrail is rated 4.3 out of 5 based on 12 reviews on Capterra. While it offers a straightforward, easy-to-implement solution, its limited market share means it may lack the community support and ecosystem depth of larger players like Splunk or Datadog. The platform's association with SolarWinds, which was involved in the Solorigate cybersecurity breach that affected over 100 private-sector companies, has led some users to seek alternative solutions for compliance and security reasons.

The honest trade-offs with Papertrail include its relatively small market presence compared to dominant competitors, which may result in fewer third-party integrations and community resources. The SolarWinds parentage raises legitimate security concerns for compliance-conscious organizations, despite the platform's own encryption and access controls. Pricing starts at $7.00 per month with a free trial and free plan available, making it accessible for small teams, but advanced features like custom Logstash pipelines and enterprise uptime SLAs may require higher-tier plans. The platform's simplicity is a double-edged sword: while it enables rapid setup and ease of use, it may lack the advanced analytics, machine learning, and SIEM capabilities that enterprises require from platforms like Splunk or Sumo Logic.

Starts at $7.00 per month with a free trial and a free plan available; pricing scales with log volume and retention, with over-usage protection included.