Sentry vs Axiom for Solo Developers

Quick Comparison

Sentry Overview

Sentry is purpose-built for application error tracking. When your production app throws an exception, Sentry captures the full context: stack trace, source maps, user information, browser and OS details, and a breadcrumb trail showing events leading up to the error. You get an alert, open the issue, and usually know exactly what to fix.

The developer experience is excellent. Install the SDK, add your DSN, deploy, and errors start flowing in. Sentry groups duplicates into issues, tracks error frequency over time, and correlates errors with releases so you can see when a bug was introduced. Performance monitoring shows slow database queries, API response times, and frontend rendering bottlenecks.

Session replay is a feature that changed how I debug. You can watch a reconstructed playback of the user's session before they hit an error, seeing exactly what they clicked, what they typed, and where the app broke. Combined with breadcrumbs and stack traces, you rarely need to ask a user to reproduce a bug.

The free tier gives you 5,000 errors per month and basic performance monitoring, which is generous for solo developers.

Axiom Overview

Axiom is a log and event data platform that lets you ingest, store, query, and analyze massive amounts of data. Think of it as a modern, developer-friendly alternative to the ELK stack (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana) or Splunk, but without the complexity and cost.

The core value proposition is simple: send all your data to Axiom and query it later. Application logs, server metrics, custom events, request traces, deployment data, anything that generates structured or semi-structured data can go into Axiom. The query language (APL, similar to Kusto) lets you filter, aggregate, and visualize that data in real time.

The free tier is remarkably generous: 500 GB of ingest per month with 30-day retention. For a solo developer, that is essentially unlimited logging. You can ship every log line from every service without worrying about volume limits.

Axiom integrates well with Vercel (native integration), Next.js, and common logging libraries. The dashboard system lets you create visualizations from your data, and monitors alert you when patterns match conditions you define.

Key Differences

Different layers of the stack. Sentry works at the application error level. It catches exceptions, tracks performance, and helps you debug specific bugs. Axiom works at the data level. It ingests logs and events, stores them, and lets you query across them. Sentry tells you "this function threw a TypeError for user X." Axiom tells you "here are all the log entries from the last hour matching your query."

Error debugging workflow. Sentry gives you a complete error report: stack trace, breadcrumbs, session replay, user context, and release information. You click into an error and know what to fix. Axiom gives you raw log data. If your application logs the error with enough context, you can find and debug it. But you have to structure your logging well, and you do not get session replay, automatic source map resolution, or breadcrumb trails.

Data flexibility. Axiom accepts any structured data. You can send application logs, infrastructure metrics, business events, CI/CD pipeline data, and custom telemetry to the same platform and query across all of it. Sentry is focused on application errors and performance. You cannot send arbitrary data to Sentry and query it the way you can with Axiom.

Log management. Axiom is a full log management platform. Search through millions of log entries, create dashboards from log data, set up alerts on log patterns. Sentry captures error events but is not a log management solution. If you need to search through your application's info, debug, and warning logs (not just errors), Axiom is the right tool.

Free tier generosity. Axiom's 500 GB per month of free ingest is exceptionally generous. Sentry's 5,000 errors per month is solid for error tracking. Both free tiers easily cover solo developer needs, but Axiom's is standout generous compared to alternatives in the log management space.

Query language. Axiom uses APL (Axiom Processing Language), which is powerful but has a learning curve. If you have used Kusto Query Language or similar, APL feels familiar. If not, expect to spend time learning the syntax. Sentry requires no query language. You browse, search, and filter errors through a visual interface.

When to Choose Sentry

• Application error tracking with deep debugging context is your priority
• You want stack traces, session replay, and breadcrumbs without any setup
• Quick integration matters and you want errors captured in under five minutes
• You need release tracking to catch regressions from new deploys
• You prefer a visual interface over writing queries

When to Choose Axiom

• You need centralized log management for all your application and infrastructure logs
• You want to query and analyze arbitrary event data beyond just errors
• The generous free tier (500 GB ingest) appeals to your budget
• You run on Vercel and want native log integration
• You need custom dashboards and alerting on log patterns and metrics

The Verdict

Sentry and Axiom are complementary, not competing. Sentry tracks application errors with deep debugging tools. Axiom aggregates and queries all your logs and event data. The best setup uses both.

If you only pick one, choose based on your biggest pain point. If production bugs are your problem, pick Sentry. The error reports with stack traces, session replay, and breadcrumbs let you fix bugs faster than any log search. If visibility into your entire system is the problem, and you need to query across logs, metrics, and events, pick Axiom.

My recommendation for solo developers: start with Sentry for error tracking (free tier handles your volume). Add Axiom when you need log management, like when you are running your own server and want centralized log search without SSHing in and grepping through files. Both free tiers are generous enough that you do not have to choose. Use Sentry for errors, Axiom for logs, and pay nothing until your project grows.