Error monitoring is not a luxury, it’s basic production hygiene. Without it, you learn about crashes from app-store reviews and angry user emails. But the market is crowded: Bugsnag, Raygun, Sentry, Rollbar, GlitchTip… How do you avoid picking wrong?
Step 1: define what exactly you’re monitoring
State the task honestly:
- Just mobile app crashes?
- Frontend and backend errors?
- Do you need performance (APM/RUM) in the same tool?
- Any self-hosted and data-storage requirements?
The answer determines the class of tool. Mobile crashes → Bugsnag/Sentry. Web + performance → Raygun/Sentry. Backend-only and open-source → GlitchTip/Sentry self-hosted.
Step 2: check support for your stack
Every tool is strong in its own area. Make a table of your languages and frameworks and check it against the SDK support matrix. Pay attention to quality, not just presence: .NET historically favors Raygun, mobile favors Bugsnag, a broad stack favors Sentry.
Step 3: evaluate diagnostic depth
A good tool should show:
- a stack trace and the exact line of code;
- breadcrumbs — the steps leading to the error;
- device/environment data;
- the error’s history and trends;
- the ability to tie an error to a release.
If a report is just “error on line N”, that’s not enough. You need context.
Step 4: count the cost honestly
Pricing usually depends on the number of events, sessions or hosts. Estimate your volume: how many errors and users do you have per month? Free plans (Bugsnag Lite, Sentry Free, GlitchTip) are good for starting out, but at scale the price grows non-linearly. Don’t forget paid features — alerts, integrations, SSO.
Step 5: check integrations and alerts
The tool should fit into your process: Slack/Teams alerts, integration with your tracker (Jira, Linear), CI/CD, deploy markers. Good error monitoring lives inside the development loop, not apart from it.
Selection checklist
- Supports your main stack and platforms
- Provides breadcrumbs and device context
- Can tie errors to releases
- Alerts go where the team sees them
- Price fits your budget at your volume
- Has self-hosted (if required)
Bottom line
Start by honestly defining the task, check your stack and count the volume. For most teams Sentry offers the best balance; for mobile look at Bugsnag; for .NET and RUM — Raygun. The main thing is not to delay: the cost of having no error monitoring is always higher than the cost of the tool.