Side by side
RootCause vs Skylight
Both stand on application performance monitoring. Which one you can start free with, which one lets you read the code, and what each costs once you pay.
Free trial Self-hostedWeb
RootCause combines session replay, video, screenshots, and source-linked stack traces for web-application error work. Buyers should review its paid plans and the listed limits on tracing, monitoring, history, and usage.
Visit RootCause Free plan APILinuxMac+1
Pick Skylight if you run a Ruby or Rails application and want endpoint, query, deployment, and background job performance analysis. The monthly free trace allowance and 30-day trial offer ways to begin. Teams that need real user monitoring should look elsewhere, as Skylight does not provide it.
Visit SkylightThe facts
| RootCause | Skylight | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | A free trial | Yes |
| Open source | Not published | Not published |
| Runs on | Self-hosted, Web | API, Linux, Mac, Web |
| Lowest paid plan | Startup: $99 a month | Paid tiers: $20 a month |
| Plans published | 3 | 3 |
| Maker | Not published | Not published |
| Website | therootcause.io | skylight.io |
| On application performance monitoring | #37 of 38 | #18 of 38 |
RootCause: what it does well
- Replays session actions in a browser
- Stack traces link to source files and lines
- Annotated screenshots mark the last interaction
- Jira, GitHub, and Slack integrations listed
- 30-day trial available from $99 per month
What to know first
- No free plan
- No real user monitoring
- Plan limits apply to errors and sessions
Skylight: what it does well
- Includes 100,000 free traces per month for every account.
- Ranks endpoints using popularity and response time.
- Tracks deployments alongside performance data.
- Analyzes Sidekiq, DelayedJob, and ActiveJob workloads.
- Groups GraphQL queries by name.
What to know first
- Paid tiers start at $20 a month.
- Paid billing is based on monthly trace volume across apps.
- Free public reporting for open-source apps requires approval.
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