Rollbar vs Sentry: What are the differences?

Rollbar and Sentry are both error-tracking tools that help developers monitor and debug software applications. Let's explore the key differences between them.

1. Error Types and Customizability: Rollbar offers more granular control over error types and allows for custom error grouping. With Rollbar, you can define your own custom exceptions and capture specific errors that you want to track. On the other hand, Sentry has a pre-defined set of error types and does not provide as much flexibility in terms of customizability.

2. Platform Support: Rollbar supports a wide range of platforms and languages, including JavaScript, Ruby, Python, PHP, Java, and many others. It has extensive documentation and libraries available for easy integration into different tech stacks. Sentry also supports multiple platforms, but Rollbar has a larger list of supported platforms.

3. Monitoring and Performance: Rollbar provides real-time monitoring and performance metrics, allowing you to analyze error patterns and identify problem areas in your application quickly. It offers advanced filtering and search options to help you diagnose issues efficiently. Sentry, on the other hand, focuses more on error tracking and providing detailed error reports.

4. Issue Management and Workflow: Sentry offers a robust issue management system that allows you to prioritize, assign, and track issues through a customizable workflow. It includes features like comments, issue history, and merging of similar issues. Rollbar, on the other hand, provides a more simplified approach to issue management without some of the advanced features offered by Sentry.

5. Pricing and Plans: Rollbar and Sentry have different pricing models and plans. Rollbar offers a free plan with limited features and additional paid plans with more advanced features and increased data limits. Sentry also has a free plan but limits the number of events that can be tracked. It offers paid plans based on event volume and additional features.

6. Integrations and Ecosystem: Both Rollbar and Sentry offer integrations with popular development tools and services like Slack, GitHub, Jira, and more. However, Rollbar has a broader ecosystem and provides more extensive integrations with third-party services, making it easier to integrate into existing workflows.

In summary, Rollbar offers more customizability, broader platform support, real-time monitoring, and a simplified issue management approach, while Sentry provides a robust issue management system, different pricing plans, and a slightly more limited set of supported platforms.