What are error tracking and uptime monitoring?
Error tracking catches the exceptions your code throws in production — in the browser and on the server — and groups them with the stack trace, the release and the user's steps, so you can fix a bug you never saw yourself. Uptime monitoring checks from the outside that your site answers, on a schedule, and alerts you when it stops; it usually comes with a status page that tells customers what is going on.
They answer different questions. Error tracking tells you what broke inside the app; uptime monitoring tells you that the whole thing is down.
Where Wolfix raises it. Error tracking and uptime / status-page presence are Technology department checks in the Wolfix specification. At this review date the automated check that flags a missing error tracker is still being built, and status-page detection is on the list of future scans — so today this page is guidance rather than the answer to a specific finding. It will be linked from those findings once they ship.
When you need them — and when you don't
You need error tracking now if anyone other than you uses the app: your users hit paths you never tested, and most will leave rather than report a bug. You need uptime monitoring now if you charge money or have a customer who depends on the app being up, because the first person to notice an outage should be you.
You don't need them yet if the app is a prototype only you use. And for a small app, the free tiers below are usually enough for a long time — paying is about team seats and alert channels, not about getting started.
The options, one by one
Two of these, Sentry and Better Stack, are services Wolfix refers customers to. Rollbar, Honeybadger and UptimeRobot are not Wolfix partners and are included because a fair comparison needs them. Sentry, Rollbar and Honeybadger start from error tracking; Better Stack and UptimeRobot start from uptime.
Sentry
What it is. An error-tracking service with performance tracing, session replay and basic uptime checks [S1].
Pricing (as of 2026-10-04). The Developer plan is free for one user and includes 5k errors a month and one uptime monitor [S1]. Team is $26 a month and Business $80 a month, each with 50k errors and unlimited users [S1].
Pros
- A free Developer plan with 5k errors a month and one uptime monitor (as of 2026-10-04, [S1]) for a solo founder.
- Team and Business include unlimited users (as of 2026-10-04, [S1]).
Cons
- The free plan is limited to one user (as of 2026-10-04, [S1]); the moment a second person needs to see errors, you are on Team at $26 a month (as of 2026-10-04, [S1]).
- Pricing is volume-based — errors, replays, spans, extra uptime alerts at $1 each (as of 2026-10-04, [S1]) — so a noisy bug or a traffic spike can burn through the quota and either drop events or bill overage.
Who it suits. Any app with real users that wants to see production errors with full context.
Better Stack (BetterUptime)
What it is. BetterUptime now trades as Better Stack: uptime and heartbeat monitoring, status pages and on-call alerting, with logs and error tracking added to the same product.
Pricing (as of 2026-10-04). The free plan, described as for personal projects, includes 10 monitors and heartbeats and one status page [S2]. Paid use starts at $29 a month per responder on annual billing, or $34 monthly, adding unlimited phone-call and SMS alerts [S2].
Pros
- The free plan covers the essentials — 10 monitors and a status page (as of 2026-10-04, [S2]) — so a small app can have outside-in monitoring and a public status page at no cost.
- Status pages, on-call and incident management live in one tool (as of 2026-10-04, [S2]), rather than stitched together from three.
Cons
- Waking you up at night costs money: phone-call and SMS alerts need a paid responder at $29 to $34 a month (as of 2026-10-04, [S2]); the free plan does not include them.
Who it suits. A founder who wants a status page and uptime alerts first, and may later want logs in the same place.
Rollbar
Not a Wolfix partner. Named for comparison; Wolfix earns nothing from it.
What it is. An error-monitoring service that groups errors in real time and ties them to deploys, with session replay and an AI-assisted tier.
Pricing (as of 2026-10-04). The free plan includes 5K occurrences and 1K sessions a month [S3]. Essentials and Advanced are priced by volume on a slider, from 10K to 50M occurrences a month, and annual billing gives 2 months free [S3]. Its pricing FAQ gives an example: a 5-person startup on Essentials at 50K events a month "pays $29/month for events alone" [S3].
Pros
- Unlimited users on every plan, the free one included (as of 2026-10-04, [S3]), so a whole team can see errors before anyone pays.
- Deploy and version tracking on the free plan (as of 2026-10-04, [S3]), which ties a spike in errors to the release that caused it.
Cons
- Paid prices depend on a volume slider rather than a flat plan price (as of 2026-10-04, [S3]), so you have to estimate your monthly event count before you can know the bill.
- Its plans list no uptime check or status page (as of 2026-10-04, [S3]), so you need a second tool to know the site is down.
Who it suits. A small team that wants shared error tracking free, and already has uptime covered elsewhere.
Honeybadger
Not a Wolfix partner. Named for comparison; Wolfix earns nothing from it.
What it is. A monitoring service that bundles error tracking, uptime checks, cron check-ins and a status page in one plan [S4].
Pricing (as of 2026-10-04). The Developer plan is free, with 5,000 errors a month, one uptime monitor and one status page [S4]. Team is $26 a month and Business $80 a month, each with 50K errors, five uptime monitors and unlimited users [S4].
Pros
- Errors, uptime and a status page on one free plan (as of 2026-10-04, [S4]).
- Flat plan prices that match Sentry's (as of 2026-10-04, [S4], [S1]), with uptime monitors included rather than billed per alert.
Cons
- The free plan is for one user (as of 2026-10-04, [S4]), so a second teammate means the $26 Team plan, exactly as with Sentry.
- Its uptime side is small — one monitor free, five on paid plans (as of 2026-10-04, [S4]) — against UptimeRobot's 50 free monitors (as of 2026-10-04, [S5]).
Who it suits. A solo developer or small team that wants one inexpensive tool for errors, uptime and a status page.
UptimeRobot
Not a Wolfix partner. Named for comparison; Wolfix earns nothing from it.
What it is. An uptime-monitoring service that checks your URLs, ports and keywords from outside and alerts you when they fail, with status pages [S5].
Pricing (as of 2026-10-04). Free is $0 for 50 monitors at a 5-minute interval, with basic status pages [S5]. Solo starts at $12 a month billed annually, or $13 monthly, for 60-second checks [S5].
Pros
- 50 free monitors (as of 2026-10-04, [S5]), against 10 on Better Stack's free plan and 1 on Sentry's and Honeybadger's (as of 2026-10-04, [S2], [S1], [S4]).
- Solo at $12 a month billed annually, or $13 monthly, adds 60-second checks (as of 2026-10-04, [S5]).
Cons
- The free plan is positioned for hobby and non-profit projects and checks only every 5 minutes (as of 2026-10-04, [S5]), so an outage can run minutes before you hear.
Who it suits. A founder who wants cheap, simple outside-in checks for a handful of URLs.
Still undecided: self-hosting
Sentry can be self-hosted from its open-source code if you would rather run it yourself, and GlitchTip is an open-source, Sentry-compatible alternative. Many hosting providers also include basic uptime checks.
Side-by-side comparison
| Service | What it watches | Free tier | Paid from | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sentry | Errors in your code, plus basic uptime [S1] | 1 user, 5k errors/month, 1 uptime monitor [S1] | Team, $26/month [S1] | 2026-10-04 |
| Better Stack (BetterUptime) | Site down, missed heartbeats, plus errors and logs [S2] | 10 monitors, 1 status page [S2] | $29–$34/month per responder [S2] | 2026-10-04 |
| Rollbar | Errors in your code [S3] | Unlimited users, 5K occurrences/month [S3] | Volume-priced; Essentials at 50K events is $29/month for events alone [S3] | 2026-10-04 |
| Honeybadger | Errors, uptime and cron check-ins [S4] | 1 user, 5,000 errors/month, 1 uptime monitor [S4] | Team, $26/month [S4] | 2026-10-04 |
| UptimeRobot | Site, port and keyword checks from outside [S5] | 50 monitors, 5-minute interval; positioned for hobby and non-profit use [S5] | Solo, $12/month billed annually [S5] | 2026-10-04 |
Frequently asked questions
What is the best error tracking tool for a small app?
Sentry's free plan covers one developer; Rollbar's free plan suits a team because it has unlimited users; Honeybadger adds uptime and a status page to the free plan (as of 2026-10-04, [S1], [S3], [S4]).
What is the difference between error tracking and uptime monitoring?
Error tracking reports exceptions from inside your code, with the stack trace. Uptime monitoring checks from outside that your site responds at all. A site can be up and throwing errors on every checkout, or down with no errors reported — you want both.
Is Sentry free?
The Developer plan is free for one user with 5k errors a month (as of 2026-10-04, [S1]). Teams need the paid Team plan.
Is BetterUptime still around?
Yes — it is now Better Stack, and the uptime product, status pages and on-call alerting continue under that name (as of 2026-10-04, [S2]).
Do I need a status page for a small app?
Not on day one. It starts paying off once you have customers who would otherwise email you during an outage; Better Stack, Honeybadger and UptimeRobot all include one free (as of 2026-10-04, [S2], [S4], [S5]).
Sources
Prices were read from each provider's public pricing page on the date shown. Rollbar's paid prices move with a volume slider; the $29 figure quoted is the example in its own pricing FAQ, "What does a real team actually pay for Rollbar?", read on 2026-10-04.
- [S1] Sentry pricing — sentry.io/pricing, checked 2026-10-04.
- [S2] Better Stack pricing — betterstack.com/pricing, checked 2026-10-04.
- [S3] Rollbar pricing and pricing FAQ — rollbar.com/pricing, checked 2026-10-04.
- [S4] Honeybadger plans — honeybadger.io/plans, checked 2026-10-04.
- [S5] UptimeRobot pricing — uptimerobot.com/pricing, checked 2026-10-04.
Last reviewed
Last reviewed on 2026-10-04. Monitoring plans and quotas change; confirm them on the sources above before you choose.