Freedom251 › Log Management Software
SolarWinds Papertrail
What SolarWinds Papertrail is
SolarWinds Papertrail is a cloud-delivered log management service that gathers events from applications, services, infrastructure, databases, network devices, and platforms. Through its web interface and REST API, users can view, search, and follow logs as they arrive. Logs can be sent with syslog or forwarded from plain-text files using the standalone remote_syslog2 daemon. The service provides structured parsing, log pipelines, archive export, and live tailing. Saved searches can become scheduled alerts, including alerts for expected events that do not occur, with notifications through Slack, PagerDuty, Campfire, email, or custom HTTP webhooks. Custom log groups control access by server, application, region, or environment. Papertrail says logs are encrypted in transit and archived with Amazon S3 AES-256 encryption, with retrieval for up to a year and TSV archive downloads. A free plan and 30-day trial are available; the Log Observability plan costs $5 a month, billed per GB per month, and includes 1 GB/day ingestion.
Who it suits
It suits teams collecting and reviewing logs from many cloud-based systems. Administrators needing access controls, alerts, and archived exports may find its listed capabilities relevant.
What it does well
- Live viewing, searching, and tailing
- Supports syslog and remote_syslog2
- Scheduled and inactivity alerts
- Access controls for log groups
- Archives retained up to a year
What to know first
- Paid plan starts at 5.00 USD monthly
- Included ingestion is 1 GB per day
- Usage can continue above limits at higher rates
Plans
| Plan | Billed and limits | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Log Observability | Per GB per month* · Scalable, full stack, multi-source log management · Unlimited systems & users · Logs can stop at the limit or continue as usage-based service up to 200% extra at 30% higher price per GB | $5 a month |
As papertrail.com lists them, read 11 Oct 2026. The maker's own page has the final word.
Verdict
Papertrail combines centralized cloud log collection with live search, alerting, permissions, and archive handling. The included daily ingestion and over-limit behavior are important when sizing a plan.
Facts from SolarWinds Papertrail's own pages
- Access control
- Customizable log groups let administrators restrict access to selected servers, applications, regions, or environments and set user permissions. · papertrail.com, 11 Oct 2026
- Alerts
- Saved searches can become scheduled alerts, including inactivity alerts for events that do not occur as expected. · papertrail.com, 11 Oct 2026
- API
- The plans page lists a REST API among the included product capabilities. · papertrail.com, 11 Oct 2026
- Archive export
- Yes · papertrail.com, 24 Sept 2026
- Archives
- Papertrail says it stores up to a year of log events for retrieval and supports downloading archives as TSV files. · papertrail.com, 11 Oct 2026
- Deployment options
- cloud · papertrail.com, 24 Sept 2026
- Encryption
- Papertrail says logs are encrypted in transit and archived with Amazon S3 built-in AES-256 encryption. · papertrail.com, 11 Oct 2026
- Founded
- 2011 · papertrail.com, 19 Oct 2026
- Ingestion
- Papertrail supports sending logs using syslog or forwarding plain-text files with its standalone remote_syslog2 daemon. · papertrail.com, 11 Oct 2026
- Integrations
- Alert notifications can be sent through Slack, PagerDuty, Campfire, email, or custom HTTP webhooks. · papertrail.com, 11 Oct 2026
- Limit behavior
- At a plan limit, logs can stop or continue as a usage-based service up to 200% extra at a 30% higher price per GB, and customers are notified. · papertrail.com, 11 Oct 2026
- Live log tailing
- Yes · papertrail.com, 24 Sept 2026
- Log pipelines
- Yes · papertrail.com, 24 Sept 2026
- Product
- Papertrail aggregates logs from applications, services, infrastructure, databases, network devices, and platforms into a cloud-delivered solution. · papertrail.com, 11 Oct 2026
- Search and live tail
- Users can view, search, and tail log events in real time through a single interface. · papertrail.com, 11 Oct 2026
- Paid from
- 5 · papertrail.com, 24 Sept 2026
- Structured log parsing
- Yes · papertrail.com, 24 Sept 2026
- Support
- The pricing FAQ directs customers to email [email protected] and says support is available when the team is awake. · papertrail.com, 11 Oct 2026
- Trial
- The website offers a 30-day free trial with no credit card required and 100 GB of usage during the trial. · papertrail.com, 11 Oct 2026
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