Freedom251 › Log Management Software
Central Logging
What Central Logging is
Central Logging is a self-hosted system for collecting, searching, and monitoring logs on a customer’s server. It also provides alerting, cron monitoring, uptime checks, and latency monitoring. The software runs as a statically linked executable without an installer, runtime, or dependencies. Linux and BSD agents collect systemd, syslog, file, and journald logs, while applications can send records through a REST API. Users can search across sources with SQL and full-text queries, save queries as alert rules, and export results to CSV. Alerts cover application errors, security events, disk and host health, cron heartbeats, uptime, and latency. Logs are stored in local SQLite databases, with retention configurable per source and set to 15 days by default. Nightly backups can go to AWS S3 or an S3-compatible server. Central Logging runs on one node and targets teams ingesting under roughly 10GB daily. The free trial costs nothing, while the Unlimited license is $187 a month, billed as a one-time payment for lifetime use.
Who it suits
It is aimed at small teams without a platform team, including indie SaaS founders, agencies, bootstrapped teams, and homelab users. It fits organisations that can run software on their own server and stay within the stated scale.
What it does well
- Self-hosted on the customer’s server
- SQL and full-text log search
- Alerts for logs, cron, uptime, and latency
- Nightly S3-compatible backups
- No telemetry or call-home
What to know first
- Single-node deployment
- Designed for under roughly 10GB daily ingest
- Default retention is 15 days
- No support contracts
Plans
| Plan | Billed and limits | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Free trial | 10,000 logs / day · One user, 10 machines · Every feature fully working · Free updates within 1.x | Free |
| Unlimited license | One-time payment · Unlimited logs, users, machines · Lifetime use · Free updates within 1.x · 14-day no-questions refund | $187, paid once |
As centrallogging.com lists them, read 2 Oct 2026. The maker's own page has the final word.
Verdict
Central Logging combines self-hosted log management with alerting, cron checks, uptime, and latency monitoring. Its one-node design and stated ingest limit make it more appropriate for small teams than very large logging environments.
Facts from Central Logging's own pages
- Archive export
- Yes · centrallogging.com, 22 Sept 2026
- Backups
- The product supports nightly S3 backups to AWS S3 or an S3-compatible server, retaining those backups for up to 15 days. · centrallogging.com, 2 Oct 2026
- Data security
- The maker says log data stays on the customer's server, the web UI uses auto-issued TLS, ingest tokens authenticate sources, and the software has no telemetry or call-home. · centrallogging.com, 2 Oct 2026
- Deployment
- It runs as a statically linked, self-contained executable with no installer, runtime, or dependencies. · centrallogging.com, 2 Oct 2026
- Free plan
- Yes · centrallogging.com, 22 Sept 2026
- Integrations
- The site documents log shipping guides for Nginx, Caddy, Docker, Kubernetes, Proxmox, PostgreSQL, rsyslog, systemd, and Python. · centrallogging.com, 2 Oct 2026
- Intended users
- The maker targets small teams without a platform team, including indie SaaS founders, agencies, bootstrapped teams, and homelab users. · centrallogging.com, 2 Oct 2026
- Live log tailing
- Yes · centrallogging.com, 22 Sept 2026
- Log inputs
- Linux and BSD agents collect systemd, syslog, files, and journald logs, and applications can send logs through the REST API. · centrallogging.com, 2 Oct 2026
- Log pipelines
- Yes · centrallogging.com, 22 Sept 2026
- Monitoring
- Built-in alerts cover application errors, security events, disk and host health, cron heartbeats, uptime, and latency. · centrallogging.com, 2 Oct 2026
- Platforms
- The site lists Linux amd64, Linux arm64, and macOS Apple Silicon downloads, and also describes agents for Linux and BSD. · centrallogging.com, 2 Oct 2026
- Purpose
- Central Logging is a self-hosted logging, alerting, cron monitoring, and uptime system installed on the customer's server. · centrallogging.com, 2 Oct 2026
- Log retention
- 15 · centrallogging.com, 22 Sept 2026
- Scale limit
- Central Logging runs on one node and is designed for teams under roughly 10GB of daily ingest; the maker says it is unsuitable for horizontal scale or terabytes per day. · centrallogging.com, 2 Oct 2026
- Search
- Users can search logs across sources with standard SQL and full-text search, save queries as alert rules, and export results to CSV. · centrallogging.com, 2 Oct 2026
- Storage and retention
- Logs are stored in local SQLite databases; retention is configurable per source and defaults to 15 days with older entries cleaned automatically. · centrallogging.com, 2 Oct 2026
- Structured log parsing
- Yes · centrallogging.com, 22 Sept 2026
- Support and refund
- The maker offers a 14-day no-questions-asked refund and states there are no support contracts. · centrallogging.com, 2 Oct 2026
Where Central Logging stands on Freedom251
- Log Management Software#76 of 111