# BugSnag vs Airbrake: Hands-On Error Tracking Comparison for 2026
I marked one bug as fixed, shipped a new version with that bug still in it, and checked both error trackers. BugSnag reopened one error and logged the reason: "Reopened by BugSnag, This error occurred in 1.1.0". Airbrake reopened all five of my error groups, and none of them carried a label saying so.
Airbrake was doing what it was configured to do. **Reporting a deploy to Airbrake resolves every open error by default**, so every bug that fired again after the deploy came back as reopened. One of those groups also held two different crashes, because Airbrake had merged them on day one. The regression was in there, but you had to dig for it.
**BugSnag is a stability-focused error tracker that scores each release by its crash-free sessions**. Airbrake is a lighter error tracker that bundles route performance numbers into the same project.
That split runs through most of this comparison. BugSnag keeps bugs apart, labels crashes, records why an error changed state and gives every release a health score. Airbrake has fewer moving parts and one thing BugSnag doesn't give you out of the box: route timings and an Apdex score with zero extra setup.
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Both tools received identical failures from the same server code, across the same two releases, so this is a direct head-to-head. Using screenshots from my October 2026 tests, I compare them on setup, capturing and debugging errors, grouping, search, triage, release tracking, performance, logs, alerts, AI and pricing.
## BugSnag vs Airbrake: Results at a glance
These verdicts reflect my Node.js and Express test app with each tool's default settings, so a different stack or configuration could shift some of them.
| Area | Better in my test | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Setup | **BugSnag** | No card for the trial; Airbrake asks for one at signup |
| Error capture | **BugSnag**, narrowly | Both caught every failure; only BugSnag labelled handled and unhandled |
| Debugging | **BugSnag** | Labelled tabs, a breadcrumb timeline and a user tab; Airbrake shows raw JSON |
| Error grouping | **BugSnag** | Six bugs became six errors; Airbrake merged two crashes and can't split them |
| Search and breakdowns | **Airbrake** | 27 filter keys, "N of M" counts and over 20 aggregations per group |
| Triage | **BugSnag** | Assign, ignore and snooze by impact; Airbrake resolves, mutes or deletes |
| Real user monitoring and session replay | Not compared | Server-only test |
| Release tracking | **BugSnag** | Version-aware fixes and session stability; Airbrake reopened all five groups |
| Performance monitoring | **Airbrake** | Route timings and Apdex with no setup; BugSnag needs OpenTelemetry, not tested |
| Logs and events | Neither | Neither tool stores logs |
| Uptime and status pages | Neither | Neither tool offers them |
| Alerts and integrations | **BugSnag** | PagerDuty and incident routing; Airbrake alerts are on and off toggles |
| AI-assisted debugging | Not compared | BugSnag's Fix with MCP wasn't run; I found no AI feature in Airbrake |
| Starting price | **BugSnag** | A free plan; Airbrake's cheapest plan is $19 a month |
## How I tested BugSnag and Airbrake
My test app, monitoring-lab, is a small bookstore that breaks on purpose. It's an Express API on SQLite, with a deliberately unreliable price service next to it and a sales report job that errors out every 60 seconds.
Each tool plugs in through its own small adapter file, so BugSnag and Airbrake received the same failures from the same server code. Scripted shoppers named alice, bob and carol generated the traffic.
The test covered these problem types:
- **Crashes:** a `TypeError` when a book is missing in `GET /books/:id`, and a `TypeError` on an unknown coupon in `POST /checkout`, which I call the coupon crash.
- **Errors reported on purpose:** an out-of-stock error the app reports itself, plus an `UpstreamError` when the price service returns a 503.
- **An unhandled promise rejection:** a recommendation lookup that times out and nothing catches.
- **A failing background job:** the sales report, which fails with a different run number each time.
- **Slow endpoints:** a CPU-heavy `GET /search` and a slow `GET /prices/:id`.
Both crashes produce the same JavaScript message, "Cannot read properties of undefined", from different routes for different reasons. Keep that in mind for the grouping section.
### The two releases
I ran both tools through the same two versions of the app.
| Release | What I tested |
|---|---|
| 1.0.0 | Setup, error capture, stack traces, breadcrumbs, user context, grouping, search, triage and route performance |
| 1.1.0 | The coupon crash, marked as fixed after 1.0.0, shipped again with the bug still in place |
The second release is the one that separates these tools. A regression test only works if the tracker can tell you which fixed bug came back, and 1.1.0 changed nothing else.
### SDKs and test limitations
| Platform | SDKs |
|---|---|
| BugSnag | `@bugsnag/js` with `@bugsnag/plugin-express` |
| Airbrake | Airbrake's Node notifier, airbrake-js/node 2.1.9 |
A few details matter when you read the results:
- **Both tools ran on trials.** BugSnag's lasted 14 days and Airbrake's 30.
- **Each tool had its own traffic run.** Event counts within one tool are consistent, but you can't compare them one to one across tools.
- **The test was server only.** I didn't install a browser SDK for either tool, so source maps, real user monitoring and session replay weren't part of it.
- **I didn't install OpenTelemetry for BugSnag,** which its performance product needs.
- **I connected no integrations** and didn't check alert emails in either tool.
- **The app ran locally,** so stack frames pointed at `file://` paths. That affects whether either tool can show source code.
## Setup and onboarding
Both tools had errors flowing within minutes. The friction came before and around the first event.
### BugSnag: A card-free trial and a guided setup
BugSnag's trial didn't ask for a card. The onboarding flow has four steps, from Welcome and Create Project through Invite Collaborators to Integrate BugSnag:
The first real question is "Where does your application run?", with Mobile, Browser, Server, Desktop, TV and Console as answers, and the platform list narrows from there.
For Express, the integration page shows the install command and a `Bugsnag.start` call with your API key. It puts the request handler ahead of all other middleware and the error handler after your routes, since that ordering catches the most.
The same page says server performance "is fully compatible with OpenTelemetry SDKs". The BugSnag SDK doesn't include that instrumentation, which matters later in the performance section.
### Airbrake: Card first, then a quick notifier
Airbrake asked for a card before it would activate the trial:
The card fields sit inside account creation, and Airbrake's pricing page confirms that "starting a new account requires a valid email and credit card".
Once you're past that, the notifier is quick. It started sending errors and request timings as soon as the app booted.
Two small traps showed up on the first visit. My data landed in a project named "Monitoring", while the default "First project" stayed empty at 0 errors and 0 requests. Opening the Deploys page also popped up an "Install the Express notifier" modal with the project key in plain text, so take care if you share screenshots.
### Setup comparison
| Capability | BugSnag | Airbrake |
|---|---|---|
| Card for the trial | ✘: not needed | ✔: required |
| Trial length | 14 days | 30 days |
| Guided platform picker | ✔: runs where, then platform | Not observed |
| Express setup | Request and error handlers in the snippet | Notifier with timings on by default |
| First-visit confusion | None observed | Data in "Monitoring", empty "First project" |
| Key shown in plain text | SDK API key at the top of settings | Project key in a Deploys modal |
**Verdict: BugSnag.** Both are quick to wire up, but a trial without a card is easier to say yes to, and BugSnag's onboarding left nothing to untangle afterwards.
## Error capture
Both tools caught every failure I seeded, including the promise rejection that nothing in the app catches. Where they differed was in telling you what kind of failure each one was.
### BugSnag: Six bugs, each marked handled or unhandled
After the first release, BugSnag's inbox held six errors:
Each row carries a coloured dot and a badge for handled or unhandled, so the out-of-stock error the app reports itself sits apart from the crashes at a glance.
The sidebar also gives you ready-made views: Introduced Today, Open, For review, Assigned to me, Assigned to anyone, Issue created, Fixed, Snoozed and Ignored.
The promise rejection arrived with a one-frame stack, but BugSnag still flagged it:
`server.js:144:9 loadRecommendations` is the whole stack, yet the unhandled label tells you this one crashed the request path and wasn't reported on purpose.
### Airbrake: Everything arrives, all at severity "error"
Airbrake captured the same set, including the rejection, which it titled "Error: Recommendation engine timed out for user anonymous":
The backtrace is the same single frame, `server.js:144:9 in loadRecommendations`, with no request context and nothing that marks it as unhandled.
That gap runs through every error. The out-of-stock error my code reported deliberately and the two crashes all showed severity "error", with no flag for how they were caught.
Airbrake did add one useful touch to the list: a live "Received 1 new occurrence / Refresh" banner, and five sort modes, including Error weight and Error severity.
### Error capture comparison
| Capability | BugSnag | Airbrake |
|---|---|---|
| Crashes in Express routes | ✔: captured | ✔: captured |
| Errors reported on purpose | ✔: captured | ✔: captured |
| Unhandled promise rejection | ✔: captured, one frame | ✔: captured, one frame |
| Failing background job | ✔: captured | ✔: captured |
| Handled vs unhandled label | ✔: dot and badge | ✘: everything is "error" |
| Saved list views | ✔: nine sidebar views | Status filter and five sort modes |
**Verdict: BugSnag, narrowly.** Both caught everything, so the margin comes from labelling. Knowing at a glance which errors crashed a request saves you a click on every row.
## Debugging an error
A captured error is only useful if the page explains it. I compared stack traces, user context, breadcrumbs and custom data on the same errors in both tools.
### Stack traces: Both stop at file and line
Neither tool showed server source code in my test. BugSnag's stack for the missing-book crash starts at the failing line and then walks through Express router frames:
The top frame reads `server.js:38:45`, and a "Raw view" toggle sits above the stack if you want the plain text.
Airbrake pointed at `server.js:81:45` for the coupon crash, with no function name:
Nine router frames follow, ending in `airbrakeMiddleware`, and clicking a frame does nothing.
Airbrake's raw context explains the missing code. A `sourceMapErrors` field says it can't fetch `file://` paths, because Airbrake reads source remotely. That's a consequence of running locally, and it doesn't prove Airbrake can't show source for a deployed app.
### User and request context
BugSnag splits each event into labelled tabs: Stacktrace, Breadcrumbs, App, Correlated events, Device, Request, User and Trace, plus one for your own metadata. The user gets a tab of their own:
Email and ID sit in labelled fields, so you know carol's checkout failed without reading any JSON.
The Correlated events tab goes one step further and lists other events from the same user and session:
Here, carol's out-of-stock errors show up beside her coupon crash, which tells you what else went wrong for her in the same visit.
Airbrake's Overview tab opens with a number BugSnag doesn't show on an error, the error rate of the route it came from:
"11.76% error rate from 85 requests to this route: POST /checkout" tells you how much of the endpoint is broken, next to the version, environment, file and host.
The user is missing from that page, though. The shopper's email lives only inside the raw Context JSON and the Users aggregation, never in a labelled field.
### Breadcrumbs and custom data
My code adds breadcrumbs such as "checkout started" and "book found". BugSnag shows them as a timeline with a type filter and a search box:
"Error Occurred" sits at the top, with the manual "book found" entry and its book ID, title and stock beneath it, so you can read the request backwards from the failure.
Airbrake has no breadcrumb panel for Node errors, so I sent the same breadcrumbs as a parameter, and they came out as JSON:
"checkout started" and "book found" are nested objects next to operating system and process details, with no timeline or icons. The plan page lists "Breadcrumbs: Trace the events that led to each error" as a feature, but no breadcrumb view appeared on the Overview, Occurrences or Aggregations tabs.
Custom data on a handled error showed the same pattern. BugSnag put my out-of-stock metadata in its own Details tab:
Book ID 7, alice's email and a quantity of 1 sit together, labelled and separate from the SDK's own data.
Airbrake mixed the same fields into one alphabetical list of parameters:
`bookId` is at the top, the email is below the fold, and `quantity` comes last, after the notifier's `os` and `process` objects. Because the error was reported by hand, its context also reads `"route": "UNKNOWN"`.
### Debugging comparison
| Capability | BugSnag | Airbrake |
|---|---|---|
| Server source lines | ✘: frames only | ✘: frames only, `file://` paths unsupported |
| Top frame | File, line and column | File, line and column, no function name |
| User field | ✔: User tab | ✘: raw Context JSON and Users aggregation |
| Other events from the same user | ✔: Correlated events | ✘: not offered |
| Route error rate on an error | ✘: not shown | ✔: shown on the Overview |
| Breadcrumbs | ✔: timeline with filter and search | ✘: raw JSON parameter |
| Custom metadata | ✔: own Details tab | Mixed into parameters alphabetically |
**Verdict: BugSnag.** Its labelled tabs, user field and breadcrumb timeline make each error faster to read. Airbrake's route error rate is a useful number, but everything below it is raw JSON you have to parse yourself.
[summary]
Neither BugSnag nor Airbrake showed a single line of my server code, and Airbrake turned my breadcrumbs into nested JSON. I ran the same app through Better Stack, and its error page showed the code around the failing line, including the bug comments I'd left in the source:
The stack sits next to "Open in VS Code" and Git blame tabs. One click on "View logs" then opened Live tail filtered to the exception's trace ID:
`ERROR POST /checkout failed` and a slow-query warning appear for that one request, as plain log lines. Neither BugSnag nor Airbrake stores logs at all, so this context simply doesn't exist in either.
**[Read every error with its code and logs](https://betterstack.com/log-management)**
[/summary]
## Error grouping
Grouping decides how many rows land in your list. Two occurrences of one bug should share a group, and two different bugs should never share one, even when their messages match.
### BugSnag: Six bugs, six errors
BugSnag kept the missing-book crash and the coupon crash apart, even though both throw "Cannot read properties of undefined". Each row in the inbox shown earlier carries a "Default grouping" label, and each crash keeps its own line number, 38 and 81.
The report job fails with a new run number each time, and BugSnag still kept it in one group.
If the default ever lets you down, the project's grouping settings offer "Group by error class" and "Group by error context". I didn't need to change either.
### Airbrake: Two crashes in one group
Airbrake counted five groups. It groups by message pattern, and both crashes normalize to "Cannot read properties of undefined (reading {})", so they landed together. The list gives no hint of that, and you only find out on the group's Aggregations tab:
Under "Message params", 13 occurrences read `title` and 10 read `discount`, and the Files breakdown shows two lines, `server.js:38:45` and `server.js:81:45`. That's two bugs with two fixes behind one row.
Airbrake has no way to split that group, and no merge option either, so the default is what you live with. It also has a knock-on effect: when I resolved the coupon crash, the missing-book crash was resolved with it.
The same rule worked in Airbrake's favour on the report job. Runs #3 to #24 folded into one group through the pattern "Sales report run {} failed: {}".
Group titles also follow the latest occurrence. The out-of-stock group switched its title from "Observability Engineering" to "The Phoenix Project" as new events came in.
This is one result from one app. Pattern-based grouping helps when messages differ only in values, and it hurts when different bugs produce the same text, which is common with JavaScript's generic `TypeError` messages. When I ran the same app through Sentry for another comparison, it kept the two crashes apart as well.
### Error grouping comparison
| Capability | BugSnag | Airbrake |
|---|---|---|
| Groups for six known bugs | 6 | 5 |
| Two crashes with the same message | ✔: kept apart | ✘: merged into one group |
| Report job with changing run numbers | ✔: one group | ✔: one group via message pattern |
| Change the grouping rule | ✔: by error class or context | ✘: not offered |
| Split or merge groups | Grouping settings | ✘: neither |
| Stable group titles | ✔: stable | ✘: follow the latest occurrence |
**Verdict: BugSnag.** Its default kept every bug apart, and it lets you change the rule if it ever doesn't. Airbrake's merged group can't be split, and resolving one crash quietly resolved the other.
[summary]
Airbrake merged two crashes and gave me no way to pull them apart. BugSnag kept them separate, so on this test the edge over BugSnag is narrow. In Better Stack, the same app's errors list kept the two crashes as separate rows, 17 events for the missing-book crash and 12 for the coupon crash:
When a default does get it wrong, the fix sits on the error itself. Every tag on the error page offers "Add to exception grouping":
The same panel splits events by release, user and URL, which covers the "who and which version" questions Airbrake answers with its Aggregations tab.
**[Compare error tracking plans](https://betterstack.com/pricing)**
[/summary]
## Search and breakdowns
Once errors are grouped, you need to know who hit them and on which version. This is the area where Airbrake pulls ahead.
### Airbrake: 27 filter keys with counts
Clicking Airbrake's search box offers 27 filter keys as chips, from User, Version and Route to Message param and Has comments:
Pick a key, then a value, and the value list shows counts, such as "carol@example.com (2 errors)".
The result list then shows each group's share of the match. Filtering by carol looked like this:
"5 of 16" on the out-of-stock group and "4 of 23" on the crash group tell you her share of each without opening anything.
Inside each group, the Aggregations tab breaks occurrences down by more than 20 fields, including users, versions, routes, files and message values, each with first and last seen. Filters also persist in the URL, so you can share a filtered view.
The limit is input. Filters are chips only, and typing `route:/check` was treated as free text and returned "No matching errors to display".
### BugSnag: Structured filters and summaries
BugSnag's filters are structured chips too. Filtering to bob's email with open errors only found his two errors:
The coupon crash shows 3 events for bob and the out-of-stock error 4, so you get his count per error in the same way.
On an error page, BugSnag summarizes events by release stage, app type, release and host, with tabs for Users, Releases, Features and Hosts. It covers the common questions, but it has nothing as deep as Airbrake's per-group Aggregations tab.
### Search comparison
| Capability | BugSnag | Airbrake |
|---|---|---|
| Structured filters | ✔: chips | ✔: 27 filter keys as chips |
| Value suggestions with counts | Not observed | ✔: error counts per value |
| Match counts per group | ✔: events per filter | ✔: "N of M" occurrences |
| Per-group breakdowns | Summaries by stage, app type, release and host | ✔: over 20 aggregations, plus custom ones |
| Typed query syntax | Not tested | ✘: chips only |
| Shareable filtered view | Not tested | ✔: filters stored in the URL |
**Verdict: Airbrake.** Its "N of M" counts and per-group aggregations answer "who and what is affected" faster than BugSnag's summaries, and they're also how you catch its own grouping mistakes.
## Triage
Triage is what you do with an error once you've read it: decide who owns it, hide it until it matters, or close it.
### BugSnag: Assign, snooze by impact and ignore
BugSnag gives you Assign, Mark as fixed, Snooze, Ignore, comments and a "Create or link an issue" option. Its snooze waits on impact as well as time:
You can hide an error until it occurs again, occurs after a set time, reaches a count or affects more users. A quiet error stays out of your list until it starts to spread.
"Mark as fixed" opens a dialog with an optional Markdown comment, and the release section shows why its link to versions matters.
### Airbrake: Resolve, mute or delete
Airbrake keeps triage to a minimum. Resolving takes one click and offers an Undo:
"Error was resolved. Undo" is the whole interaction, with no choice of version and no snooze.
Bulk actions are just as lean. Checking two rows offered a single "Resolve 2" button:
Resolve is the only bulk action, and the Comments tab beside it supports Markdown. Beyond that, you can mute or delete an error, and I found no assign, priority, snooze or merge anywhere in the group header, tabs or list.
### Triage comparison
| Capability | BugSnag | Airbrake |
|---|---|---|
| Assign an owner | ✔: available | ✘: not found |
| Snooze | ✔: by time, count or users | ✘: not found |
| Ignore or mute | ✔: Ignore | ✔: Mute |
| Resolve options | ✔: fixed until a new version | ✘: one click, no options |
| Bulk actions | Not tested | Resolve only |
| Comments | ✔: Comments and Activity | ✔: Markdown comments |
| Link to an issue tracker | ✔: Create or link an issue | Through integrations |
**Verdict: BugSnag.** On a team, you need to know who owns an error and when it's worth another look. Airbrake's single Resolve button works for one developer and runs out quickly with more.
## Real user monitoring and session replay
Real user monitoring measures how your app performs for visitors, and session replay records what they did before an error.
This test was server only, so I can't compare either. BugSnag's performance product lists Page Loads, but it needs OpenTelemetry, and I didn't install a browser SDK. Airbrake sells only Error Monitoring and Performance Monitoring, and I found no replay or browser performance product in its navigation or plan options.
If replay matters to you, [our BugSnag vs Rollbar comparison](https://betterstack.com/community/comparisons/bugsnag-vs-rollbar/) covers a tracker that records browser sessions.
| Capability | BugSnag | Airbrake |
|---|---|---|
| Browser page loads | With OpenTelemetry, not tested | ✘: not found |
| Session replay | ✘: not listed | ✘: not offered |
| Tested here | ✘: server-only test | ✘: server-only test |
**Verdict: Not compared.** Neither tool's browser side was part of this test.
## Release tracking and regressions
Release tracking answers two questions: did this version break something, and did a fixed bug come back? The two tools take very different routes to the answers.
### How each tool learns about versions
BugSnag takes the version your SDK reports and counts sessions on its own. The Express plugin treats every request as a session, so each release gets a stability score with no extra setup:
Version 1.0.0 scored 83.103% session stability over 290 sessions, marked "Critical stability" against default targets of 99% and a 90% critical line. My app fails on purpose, so the low score is by design.
BugSnag also has a "Workflow automation: Mark errors as fixed after each release" setting, and it's Disabled by default.
Airbrake records the version on each error but treats deploys as a separate thing. Sending a version doesn't create a deploy. The Deploys page stays at "We haven't received any deployments from this project yet" until you report one through the Airbrake CLI or cURL.
Project settings then hold the option that shapes everything below, and it's switched on by default:
"Resolve all errors in environment after a deploy" sits under "Deploy tracking", next to the Apdex threshold and a "Min app version" setting for ignoring old versions.
### BugSnag: One error reopened, with a reason
I marked the coupon crash as fixed after 1.0.0 and shipped 1.1.0 with the bug still in place. BugSnag reopened that error and nothing else, and its activity log says why:
"Fixed by Stanley Ulili, Until this error occurs again in a new version" sits under "Reopened by BugSnag, This error occurred in 1.1.0", so the fix and the reopen are tied to versions.
The error page shows the same event from the release side:
The button reads "Mark as fixed" again, and according to the Releases summary, 14 of the error's 27 events, or 51.9%, came from 1.1.0.
The inbox is where BugSnag falls short. The reopened row looks like any other open error:
The sidebar reads Open (6) and Fixed (0), and nothing on the coupon row says it came back.
The releases page then lined up both versions:
1.1.0 scored 83.893% over 298 sessions, with "11 minutes between releases" shown, while "Compare release performance" stayed greyed out without performance data.
On the 1.1.0 release page, "Errors seen" with the Unhandled filter listed the crashes that fired on that version:
The missing-book crash had 15, the coupon crash 14, the `UpstreamError` 12 and the recommendation timeout 7, alongside 298 sessions and a 24-hour adoption of 50.68%.
The tab next to it handled the trick question correctly:
"Errors introduced" reads "No errors matching your filters", which is right, since 1.1.0 shipped no new bug.
### Airbrake: Five groups reopened, none labelled
I reported the 1.1.0 deploy through Airbrake's API. The deploy resolved the four errors I hadn't touched, and the activity feed recorded "Deployed to development (resolving 4 errors)". Every one of them fired again, so all five groups reopened.
The crash group, which I'd resolved by hand, came back with a count since the deploy:
"OCCURRENCES 46 (23 since last deploy)" is the only regression signal, and the version now reads 1.1.0.
Because this group holds both crashes, you need its Aggregations tab to see which one regressed. The missing-book crash added 16 events after the deploy and the coupon crash 7. No row says "reopened", there's no regression filter, and the activity feed has no entry for the reopen.
The Deploys list didn't fill the gap either:
Both v1.1.0 deploys appear, but the Errors Fixed and Errors Introduced columns show dashes, and the page reports "0 Deploys with new errors".
Opening the active deploy gave the same picture:
It reads "Fixed errors 0" and "Introduced errors 0", even though the activity feed credited the same deploy with resolving four errors. I'd sent the same revision twice, so "Nothing to compare" is fair, but the zero fixed count still contradicts the feed.
The auto-resolve has a use. If you want a clean list after every deploy, keep it on and read every reopened group as "still happening". If you want regressions to stand out, switch it off, because the defaults turn one returning bug into five.
### Release tracking comparison
| Capability | BugSnag | Airbrake |
|---|---|---|
| Version source | SDK `appVersion` | Version on errors, deploys by CLI or API |
| Release health | ✔: session stability per release | ✘: not offered |
| Version-aware fix | ✔: fixed until a new version | ✘: one-click resolve |
| Auto-resolve on deploy | Off by default | On by default |
| Groups reopened by one regression | 1 | 5 |
| Reason for the reopen | ✔: activity log entry | ✘: "since last deploy" count only |
| Reopened label in the list | ✘: none | ✘: none |
| Errors introduced per release | ✔: correctly empty | ✘: dashes and zeros |
**Verdict: BugSnag.** It reopened exactly the bug I'd fixed, wrote down why and scored both releases. Airbrake's defaults turned one regression into five reopened groups and gave none of them a label.
[summary]
BugSnag explained the reopen only inside the error, and Airbrake buried it among five reopened groups. In Better Stack, I resolved the same coupon crash with "Resolve in next release" and ran the same unfixed version. Only that error came back, and its row in the errors list switched to a red "Reoccurred" status:
That's the one place neither BugSnag nor Airbrake marked the comeback, and it's the first screen you open. The error page then tells the story in order:
"Error reoccurred, 3 minutes ago" sits above "Stanley Ulili resolved the error, 6 minutes ago". Releases came from the SDK's `release` value, with no deploy call and no setting that resolves everything behind your back. One rough edge: the confirmation toast said "resolved in this release" although the option said "next release", and there's no separate Regressed tab on the release page.
**[Spot regressions straight from your error list](https://betterstack.com/error-tracking)**
[/summary]
## Performance monitoring
Some problems never throw. A route can slow down while every request still succeeds, so I checked what each tool tells you about request speed.
### Airbrake: Route timings from the first request
Airbrake's notifier sends request timings by default, and the Performance page filled in with no setup:
Over one hour, it showed an "Apdex score (T = 0.5 s)" of 0.92, 270 requests at 4.5 a minute, a mean response time of 239.04 ms and a 10% error rate. The default range was 90 days, so I narrowed it first.
The Routes table found my two slow endpoints straight away:
Sorted by 95th percentile, `GET /search` at 1.90 s and `GET /prices/:id` at 1.70 s are highlighted in orange at the top, which matches the two slow paths I built in. Each route also shows its error count and rate, such as 26.53% for `GET /books/:id`.
The detail stops at the route, though. Opening `/search` showed nothing about where its time went:
"Response time (mean)" shows a dash over an empty grey bar, and Queries reads "No data for the chosen time period". There are no traces or spans.
A few numbers didn't line up. Apdex was 0.82 on the Account Dashboard and 0.92 on the project's Performance page, percentiles shifted with the time range, and `/broken-promise` showed 0 errors although its rejection was captured. Performance data was kept for 7 days on my trial.
### BugSnag: Needs OpenTelemetry first
BugSnag has a performance product, but every view stayed empty:
Every panel, from Page Loads and Inbound Requests to Outbound Requests and Custom Spans, is empty beneath "Enable BugSnag performance monitoring by installing the OpenTelemetry SDK".
The project overview made that gap more confusing:
"App starts" and "Core network endpoints" both show as Alerting by default, even though no performance data had arrived.
With OpenTelemetry in place, BugSnag offers spans for requests and custom work, which goes further than Airbrake's route table. I didn't install it, so I can't judge how well it works.
### Performance comparison
| Capability | BugSnag | Airbrake |
|---|---|---|
| Setup needed | OpenTelemetry SDK | ✔: none, on by default |
| Apdex | Not tested | ✔: 0.92 with T of 0.5 s |
| Slowest routes | Not tested | ✔: p50 and p95, sortable |
| Found the slow endpoints | Not tested | ✔: `/search` and `/prices/:id` flagged |
| Time breakdown in a route | Not tested | ✘: empty bar, no query data |
| Traces or spans | With OpenTelemetry, not tested | ✘: not offered |
| Monitors before any data | "Alerting" by default | Not applicable |
**Verdict: Airbrake.** It's the only one that gave me performance numbers in this test, with zero setup. BugSnag's OpenTelemetry route could go deeper, but I didn't test it, so I can't credit it.
[summary]
Airbrake flagged `/search` as slow and then showed an empty breakdown, and BugSnag showed nothing without OpenTelemetry. Better Stack traced the same app through the Sentry SDK, and I asked its AI SRE which route was slowest and why:
It named `GET /search` as a blocker, with 191 of 191 requests over 1 second and a p50 of 1545 ms, and ruled out the database because every query span was under a millisecond. That's the CPU burn I built in. It wasn't perfect: it called `/prices` slow handler code when it waits on a slow upstream, and the run cost $0.62.
On a later build where I slowed checkout on purpose, the spans of a single failing request showed exactly where the time went:
`SELECT book for checkout` took 1.53 s and "charge card" 660 ms of a 2.19 s request, two causes Airbrake's route average would have blended into one number.
**[See where every slow request spends its time](https://betterstack.com/tracing)**
[/summary]
## Logs and events
Logs often explain what a stack trace can't, such as a warning written seconds before a crash.
Neither tool stores them. BugSnag has no logs or custom metrics product, and Airbrake sells only Error Monitoring and Performance Monitoring. Airbrake's Trends page said "Your first trends will be visible next week", so I couldn't test it.
That also means neither tool can confirm its own event counts. I'd need the app's own output to check them.
| Capability | BugSnag | Airbrake |
|---|---|---|
| Log storage | ✘: not offered | ✘: not offered |
| Custom metrics | ✘: not offered | ✘: not offered |
| Event queries | Filters only | Filters and aggregations |
| Trends | Not observed | Not testable during the trial |
**Verdict: Neither.** You'll need a separate log tool alongside either of them.
## Uptime, status pages and alerts
Neither tool offers uptime checks or status pages, so the comparison here is about alerts and where they can go.
### BugSnag: Incident routing included
BugSnag's integrations cover chat, issue tracking, incident management and data forwarding:
Slack and Datadog handle team notifications, Jira and Trello issue tracking, PagerDuty incident management, and webhooks and Splunk data forwarding. PagerDuty is the one that matters, because an error can page whoever is on call.
### Airbrake: Toggles per user
Airbrake connects to Slack, Teams, Bitbucket, GitHub, GitLab, Jira, Pivotal Tracker, Trello and webhooks. Its Jira integration does more than most:
"Auto create JIRA issue when an error occurs" and "Reopen resolved or closed JIRA issue when a resolved error reoccurs" are both checked, so your tickets follow the error's state.
Alerting itself is a set of switches. Each user picks email for errors and comments, digest frequency and two extras:
The columns read ERRORS, COMMENTS, ★ HIGH VOLUME and PRODUCTION ONLY, with weekly digests selected and "Inbox saver" on.
Slack works the same way, as a webhook with an "Only trigger for errors with environments matching production" toggle. There's no rule builder with thresholds or time windows, no performance or Apdex alerts, and no PagerDuty or Opsgenie in the list.
### Alerts comparison
| Capability | BugSnag | Airbrake |
|---|---|---|
| Uptime checks | ✘: not offered | ✘: not offered |
| Status pages | ✘: not offered | ✘: not offered |
| Chat | Slack, Datadog | Slack, Teams |
| Issue trackers | Jira, Trello | Jira, GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Pivotal Tracker, Trello |
| Incident management | ✔: PagerDuty | ✘: none listed |
| Jira auto-reopen | Not observed | ✔: available |
| Alert rules with thresholds | Not tested | ✘: toggles only |
| Alert delivery | Not tested | Not tested |
**Verdict: BugSnag,** mainly for PagerDuty. Airbrake's Jira auto-reopen is a nice touch if your team lives in Jira, and I didn't test delivery in either tool.
## AI-assisted debugging
Neither tool has AI root-cause analysis built into the error page, and I didn't run either tool's AI path, so this isn't a head-to-head.
BugSnag's route is a "Fix with MCP" button that hands an error to SmartBear's MCP server, where an AI assistant in your IDE can pick it up. On my trial, it offered to install the server first:
"The MCP Server has not been used by you for this project" is as far as I got, because I cancelled. The quality of what comes back depends on your own assistant.
I found no AI feature in Airbrake's navigation, error pages or plan options.
| Capability | BugSnag | Airbrake |
|---|---|---|
| In-product AI analysis | ✘: not offered | ✘: not found |
| External assistant route | ✔: Fix with MCP, not tested | ✘: not found |
| Root-cause accuracy | Not tested | Not applicable |
**Verdict: Not compared.** BugSnag at least gives you a route into your own assistant, but I can't judge results I didn't see.
[summary]
BugSnag hands AI work to an MCP server you install yourself, and Airbrake has no AI at all. Better Stack's AI SRE is part of the product. I asked it what changed in a bad release of the same app, and it worked through releases, errors, traces and logs in about 30 steps:
It found checkout p50 rising from about 2 ms to about 3.7 s, traced it to `SELECT book for checkout` going from 0.13 ms to 2.6 s, and ruled out the database because every other statement stayed near 0.1 ms. It then moved on to the second cause:
It linked a new "charge card" span, with 10 of 48 calls failing, to the new payment error and recommended a rollback, all without access to my repository. It called the payment failure a timeout that's "too short", when the code fails every fifth payment on purpose, which it couldn't see without the repo. The run took about four minutes and showed a $0.49 cost.
**[Put an AI SRE on your next bad release](https://betterstack.com/ai-sre)**
[/summary]
## Pricing
I pulled these numbers from both pricing pages on October 26, 2026, and added what my two trial accounts showed. Plans change, so check both before you buy.
### Free plans and trials
| Feature | BugSnag | Airbrake |
|---|---|---|
| Permanent free plan | ✔: available | ✘: none |
| Free-plan events | 7,500 | Not applicable |
| Free-plan users | 1 | Not applicable |
| Free-plan retention | 7 days | Not applicable |
| Trial length | 14 days | 30 days |
| Card for the trial | ✘: not needed | ✔: required |
| Performance on the trial | Trial included, needs OpenTelemetry | Developer APM, 50K events |
BugSnag's trial covered both its Error monitoring and Performance plans:
Both plans showed as trials on the same page, so you can test performance during those 14 days if you add OpenTelemetry.
Airbrake's usage page showed what the trial consumes:
"Days remaining in free trial: 30" sits above "25K errors Used: 0%" and "50K events Used: 1%", and on-demand errors are free during the trial, then $6.50 per 10,000.
### Entry-level paid plans
| Feature | BugSnag | Airbrake |
|---|---|---|
| Entry plan | Select | Dev |
| Entry monthly price | Price not listed: set on a volume slider | $19 |
| Team plan | Preferred | Basic |
| Team plan monthly price | Price not listed: set on a volume slider | $38 |
| Higher plan | Enterprise | Pro |
| Higher plan monthly price | Custom | $76 |
| Included errors | 50,000 to 3M events on the slider | 25,000 on the first tier |
| Error retention | 60 days | 30 days |
| Annual billing | Not listed | About 10% less |
Airbrake builds each price from a plan package plus an error tier. On my trial, Basic showed as a $19 package plus a $19 tier for 25,000 errors:
The packages read Dev $0, Basic $19 and Pro $57, so each plan's price above includes the $19 first tier. Pro adds Audit Log and Spike Forgiveness, and Basic caps you at 3 teams.
BugSnag's page shows "starting at $0" next to a volume slider and lists no fixed paid prices, so its real cost depends on the volume you pick or a sales quote.
### What costs extra
| Item | BugSnag | Airbrake |
|---|---|---|
| Extra errors | Move up the volume slider | $6.50 per 10,000 |
| Performance | Span volume, needs OpenTelemetry | Developer APM free tier, 50K events |
| Performance retention | Not listed | 7 days on my trial |
| Logs | ✘: needs another product | ✘: needs another product |
| Session replay | ✘: not listed | ✘: not offered |
| Uptime and status pages | ✘: needs another product | ✘: needs another product |
My trial listed performance retention as 7 days, while the current pricing calculator shows 30 days [VERIFY: Airbrake performance retention on paid plans].
### Comparing the actual cost
For one developer, BugSnag costs nothing to start, and its free plan is enough to run a real project for a while. Airbrake's cheapest path is $19 a month, and you need a card before you can even try it.
For a team, the comparison is harder to make. Airbrake publishes fixed prices, and the $38 Basic plan includes unlimited users and route performance. BugSnag's paid prices depend on the slider, so you'll need to price your own volume.
The bigger cost is what both leave out. Neither stores logs, records sessions or checks uptime, so a production setup with either one means paying for at least one more tool next to it.
**Verdict: BugSnag to start,** with a free plan and a card-free trial. Airbrake's fixed prices are easier to budget, and its free performance tier covers route timings that BugSnag only gives you with OpenTelemetry.
## Full feature comparison
This table combines everything I observed in both tools.
| Feature | BugSnag | Airbrake |
|---|---|---|
| Card for the trial | ✘: not needed | ✔: required |
| Permanent free plan | ✔: 7,500 events | ✘: none |
| Unhandled promise rejection | ✔: captured | ✔: captured |
| Handled vs unhandled label | ✔: labelled | ✘: not shown |
| Grouping in this test | 6 errors for 6 bugs | 5 groups, two crashes merged |
| Change grouping rules | ✔: by error class or context | ✘: not offered |
| Split or merge groups | Grouping settings | ✘: neither |
| Server source lines | ✘: frames only | ✘: frames only |
| Breadcrumbs | ✔: timeline with filter and search | ✘: raw JSON parameter |
| User context | ✔: User tab and correlated events | Raw JSON and a Users aggregation |
| Route error rate on an error | ✘: not shown | ✔: on the Overview |
| Search filters | ✔: structured chips | ✔: 27 keys with "N of M" counts |
| Per-group breakdowns | Summaries by release and host | ✔: over 20 aggregations |
| Assign and snooze | ✔: both, snooze by impact | ✘: neither |
| Resolve options | ✔: fixed until a new version | ✘: one click, no options |
| Release health | ✔: session stability per release | ✘: not offered |
| Deploys | Version from the SDK | Reported by CLI or API |
| Auto-resolve on deploy | Off by default | On by default |
| Regression signal | Activity log entry | "Since last deploy" count |
| Route performance | With OpenTelemetry, not tested | ✔: p50, p95 and Apdex built in |
| Traces | With OpenTelemetry, not tested | ✘: not offered |
| Logs | ✘: not offered | ✘: not offered |
| Session replay | ✘: not listed | ✘: not offered |
| Uptime and status pages | ✘: not offered | ✘: not offered |
| PagerDuty | ✔: available | ✘: not listed |
| Jira auto-reopen | Not observed | ✔: available |
| AI | Fix with MCP, not tested | ✘: none found |
## Which should you choose?
The choice comes down to whether you need the tracker to keep a team's error list accurate or to give one developer quick numbers.
### Choose BugSnag if a team will share the error list
BugSnag is the better fit when several people triage errors together. It kept every bug in its own group, labelled crashes, showed who was affected and reopened only the error that came back, with a written reason.
Its release health is the other strength. Every version got a session stability score with no setup, and "Errors introduced" correctly stayed empty when nothing new shipped. If you ship apps where crash-free sessions matter, that score alone earns its place.
The trade-offs are performance and logs. You'll need OpenTelemetry before BugSnag shows any request timings, its monitors read "Alerting" before data arrives, and the inbox doesn't mark a reopened error. Its strengths held up against a bigger platform in [our Sentry vs BugSnag comparison](https://betterstack.com/community/comparisons/sentry-vs-bugsnag/).
### Choose Airbrake if you want errors and route speed for a fixed price
Airbrake suits a small team that wants errors and route performance from one simple tool. Its filters and aggregations are excellent for working out who an error hit, and slow routes showed up with no setup at all.
Go in with two settings in mind. Turn off "Resolve all errors in environment after a deploy" if you want regressions to stand out, and check the Aggregations tab on any big group, because different bugs that share a message will share a row.
The limits are triage and detail. There's no assign or snooze, breadcrumbs arrive as JSON, and you'll need a card to start. For a closer look at how its grouping holds up against a heavier tool, see [our Sentry vs Airbrake comparison](https://betterstack.com/community/comparisons/sentry-vs-airbrake/).
## Final thoughts
The real decision is how much interpretation you want the tool to do for you. **BugSnag reads each error closely and tells you what changed and why**, but it gives you nothing about speed until you add OpenTelemetry. **Airbrake hands you route timings and impact counts on day one**, and leaves the reading of each error to you.
That trade-off showed most clearly on release day. A tool that reopens everything after a deploy is easy to set up and hard to trust, and one that reopens a single error with a reason costs you nothing extra to start.
When I shipped one bug I'd already marked as fixed, BugSnag reopened one error and Airbrake asked me to check five.