# GlitchTip vs Airbrake: A Hands-On Error Tracking Comparison for 2026
Two separate crashes in the bookstore I built for testing share the text "Cannot read properties of undefined". One breaks on an unknown coupon, the other on a missing book. GlitchTip kept them as two issues. Airbrake stripped out the property names, saw one pattern, and filed both bugs in a single row, so resolving one quietly resolved the other.
Turn the same rules on a job that fails with a new run number every minute, and the results flip. Airbrake kept the job in one row. GlitchTip opened a new issue for each run it saw.
**GlitchTip is an open-source error tracker that speaks Sentry's SDK protocol,** with basic performance, logs and uptime checks, from $15 a month hosted or free on your own servers.
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Airbrake is one of the older hosted error trackers. It pairs error monitoring with route-level performance from the same notifier, and its plans start at $19 a month with a card required for the trial.
Fair warning on coverage: GlitchTip saw my API and my storefront across all three versions, while Airbrake saw only the API, across the first two, on an older build. Where a section covers just one tool, it's labelled and left out of the scoring.
What follows weighs them on onboarding, capture, debugging, grouping, searching, the browser, returning bugs, route speed, logs, monitoring, AI help and cost.
## GlitchTip vs Airbrake: Results at a glance
My calls rest on an Express server written for Node.js. I didn't test Airbrake's browser notifier, and my app's `file://` stack paths limited what either tool could show for server code.
| Area | Better in my test | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Setup | **GlitchTip** | A free plan with no card; Airbrake needs a card before the trial |
| Error capture | **GlitchTip**, narrowly | Both caught every server failure; only GlitchTip marked handled versus unhandled |
| Debugging an error | **GlitchTip** | Server source lines and a labelled request; Airbrake showed bare frames and raw JSON |
| Error grouping | Mixed | GlitchTip split by values; Airbrake merged two different bugs |
| Search and triage | **Airbrake** | 27 filter keys with counts and per-group aggregations |
| Browser errors | GlitchTip only | Airbrake's browser notifier wasn't tested |
| Releases and regressions | Mixed | GlitchTip resolves for the next release; Airbrake counts errors since the last deploy |
| Performance | **Airbrake**, narrowly | Route percentiles and Apdex with no setup; GlitchTip averages after a fix |
| Logs | **GlitchTip** | A log view exists; Airbrake sells none |
| Uptime and alerts | Not compared | Nothing wired up, and uptime can't reach localhost |
| AI-assisted debugging | Not compared | Only GlitchTip has an AI handoff, and I didn't try it |
| Price | **GlitchTip** | $15 for 100,000 events against $19 for 25,000 |
## How I tested GlitchTip and Airbrake
The test bed is a bookshop app that breaks on schedule. Its Express API stores data in SQLite, a Vite storefront sits in front, a fake price API answers on the side, and a report job runs in the background. Scripted shoppers named alice, bob and carol produced the same failures for both tools.
Both tools received these server failures:
- **Two different `TypeError` crashes:** reading a property from an unknown coupon, and from a book that doesn't exist.
- **A handled error:** the app reporting a book as out of stock.
- **A flaky upstream:** 503 responses from the price service.
- **Async failures:** a recommendations promise left uncaught, plus a background report that numbers each failing run.
On top of that, GlitchTip got the front end's failures, from a broken wishlist button and failed fetches.
### Releases and coverage
| Release | What it tested | GlitchTip | Airbrake |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.0.0 | Setup, first errors, performance | ✔: server and browser | ✔: server |
| 1.1.0 | A bug resolved, then shipped again unchanged | ✔: tested | ✔: tested |
| 1.2.0 | A bad deploy: slower checkout plus a payment bug | ✔: tested | ✘: not run |
Only 1.1.0 ran through both, and it checks one thing: whether a fix that didn't work gets noticed.
### SDKs and test limitations
| Platform | GlitchTip | Airbrake |
|---|---|---|
| Server | Sentry's Node.js SDK 11.8.0, sending to GlitchTip | Airbrake's Node notifier 2.1.9 |
| Browser | Sentry's browser SDK 11.8.0 | Not tested |
| Plan | GlitchTip 7.0.0rc2, hosted, Free plan | 30-day trial with a card |
- **Different builds:** Airbrake ran on an earlier server-only build of the app, so its screenshots show different line numbers.
- **Counts:** totals come from separate traffic runs and don't line up one to one.
- **Stack paths:** my server reported `file://` paths, which Airbrake can't fetch source for. A deployed app with reachable source could show more.
- **Airbrake deploys:** both of my reported deploys used the same revision, so its fixed and introduced counts weren't fully exercised.
- **No alert channels:** I connected no notifier or integration to either tool.
### Terms in each tool
| Concept | GlitchTip | Airbrake |
|---|---|---|
| An error group | Issue | Error |
| A release | Release, from the SDK | Deploy, reported by CLI or cURL |
| A fixed error | Resolved | Resolved |
| Group breakdowns | Tag bars on the issue | Aggregations tab |
| Request timing | Transaction groups | Performance routes |
| Issue history | Comments | Activity feed |
## Setup and onboarding
GlitchTip borrows Sentry's SDK and setup snippet. Airbrake uses its own notifier, which reports errors and request timings from one package.
### GlitchTip: Free plan, then a team
GlitchTip shows its plans before your first project:
The Free plan needs no card and allows 1,000 events a month. Next, the project form wouldn't save without a team, so I created one inline:
The connect page then shows Sentry's Node.js snippet with your DSN. It doesn't mention that Sentry SDK 11 needs `traceLifecycle: 'static'` before performance data reaches GlitchTip.
### Airbrake: A card at signup
Airbrake asks for card details before the trial activates:
Once inside, errors and route timings started flowing from the notifier without further setup. They went to a "Monitoring" project, next to an unused default one. The Deploys page also opened a setup modal with the project key in plain text, so mind your screen when you share it.
> **Worth turning on in GlitchTip:** on Sentry SDK 11, set `traceLifecycle: 'static'` in your init call before you look for transactions.
### Setup comparison
| Capability | GlitchTip | Airbrake |
|---|---|---|
| Free start | ✔: Free plan, no card | ✘: card required for the trial |
| SDK | Sentry's SDKs | Airbrake notifier |
| Performance out of the box | ✘: needs a setting with SDK 11 | ✔: route timings automatically |
| Prerequisites | A plan and a team | A project |
| Self-hosting | ✔: open source | ✘: not offered |
**Verdict: GlitchTip.** You can start for free without a card. Airbrake's notifier is quicker to useful performance data, but the card form comes first.
## Error capture
Both tools hook uncaught errors in Node.js. On the server, each caught the full set.
### GlitchTip: Every failure, with handled status
GlitchTip's first run listed every planted failure:
Every server failure is there, rejection and report job included, next to the front end's errors. Each event records whether it was handled, through the Sentry SDK's mechanism field.
### Airbrake: Every failure, with less context on some
Airbrake caught the same server failures. The unhandled rejection arrived with one frame and no request:
Nothing marks it as unhandled. Every error, crash or reported, carries the same "error" severity, and errors my code reported itself showed the route as "UNKNOWN".
### Capture comparison
| Capability | GlitchTip | Airbrake |
|---|---|---|
| Request crashes | ✔: reported | ✔: reported |
| Handled errors | ✔: reported | ✔: reported, route UNKNOWN |
| Unhandled rejection | ✔: reported | ✔: one frame, no request |
| Report job | ✔: reported | ✔: reported |
| Handled versus unhandled | ✔: per event | ✘: not shown |
**Verdict: GlitchTip, narrowly.** Both caught everything. GlitchTip keeps the handled flag and the route, which helps when you're deciding what to fix first.
## Debugging an error
On a server error, you want the failing line and the request that triggered it. GlitchTip gave me both. Airbrake gave me a route error rate, and made me dig for the rest.
### GlitchTip: Code and request on the page
GlitchTip showed the code around the crash:
The Sentry SDK sends these context lines itself, so no repository was needed. The request body and headers sit lower on the page. The breadcrumbs were noisier, mixing this request's two steps with startup lines and report output from other minutes:
Only two of these entries belong to the failing checkout.
### Airbrake: Bare frames, raw JSON and a useful rate
Airbrake's backtrace listed frames with no code:
Clicking a frame does nothing. A hidden `sourceMapErrors` field gives the reason: "unsupported URL scheme", since Airbrake downloads source and my frames pointed at local files. Its overview adds one number GlitchTip doesn't:
The route line says the bug hit about 12% of 85 checkout requests, a measure of how much traffic it breaks. The user and the request data live in raw JSON, though:
My breadcrumbs appeared there too, as a JSON parameter, because Airbrake showed no breadcrumb panel for Node.js errors.
### Debugging comparison
| Capability | GlitchTip | Airbrake |
|---|---|---|
| Server source lines | ✔: from the SDK | ✘: `file://` paths unsupported |
| Request details | ✔: body and headers | Raw JSON |
| User | Tags and header | Raw JSON, plus a Users aggregation |
| Breadcrumbs | Mixed: other requests leak in | ✘: only as a JSON parameter |
| Route error rate | ✘: not shown | ✔: on the overview |
**Verdict: GlitchTip.** It put the code and the request in readable sections. Airbrake's error rate per route is useful, but you read the rest from JSON.
## Error grouping
How a tool groups errors decides whether your list matches your bugs. Both of these key on the message, with one difference: GlitchTip keeps the message exact, while Airbrake replaces the changing parts with placeholders. That single choice produced opposite mistakes:
The dashed lines mark how many real bugs sat behind each case.
### GlitchTip: Each new value, a new issue
GlitchTip kept the two `TypeError` crashes apart, because their messages differ. Any value in a message also became a new issue, so the report job split by run number:
Stock errors split by book and quantity as well, and in the 1.2.0 run, the new payment failure became one issue per amount charged.
### Airbrake: One pattern, sometimes two bugs
Airbrake replaced the property name in both crash messages with a placeholder, so they collapsed into a single group. Its **Aggregations** tab reveals the mix:
The message parameters split between `title` and `discount`, and the files point at two different lines. Airbrake has no split control, so the two bugs share one row and one resolve button. The same rule folded every report job run into one group, which is what you want there.
### Grouping comparison
| Capability | GlitchTip | Airbrake |
|---|---|---|
| Grouping key | Exact message | Message with values replaced |
| Two different crashes | ✔: 2 issues | ✘: 1 group |
| Report job runs | ✘: one per run | ✔: 1 group |
| Out-of-stock error | ✘: one issue per book and quantity | ✔: 1 group, title changes |
| Fix by hand | Merge, not tested | ✘: no split or merge |
**Verdict: Mixed.** GlitchTip's mistakes add rows you can merge. Airbrake's mistakes hide a bug inside another one, and it gives you no way to split them, which is harder to notice and to fix.
[summary]
GlitchTip split one bug by its values, and Airbrake merged two bugs because their messages looked alike. Better Stack took the same Sentry SDK events in my test and grouped the 1.2.0 payment error as one group of 10 exceptions, with the different amounts inside:
Grouping followed where the error was thrown, and the page shows the code at that spot. You get a row per bug, with no manual merging.
**[Group errors by the code that threw them](https://betterstack.com/error-tracking)**
[/summary]
## Searching and triaging errors
After grouping comes the hunt: which customers, which versions, which routes. Airbrake puts much more into this than GlitchTip.
### Airbrake: Filters with counts
Airbrake's search opens a set of filter chips:
There are 27 keys, including user, version, route and message parameter. Filtering to one shopper shows that person's share of each group:
One shopper, carol, caused 5 of the 16 out-of-stock errors. Typing a filter as plain text found nothing, so stick to the chips.
### GlitchTip: Search and bulk actions
GlitchTip's issue list has a search box and bulk actions to resolve, ignore, merge or delete. Each issue shows tag bars, such as the share of events per release or user, on its own page.
### Search and triage comparison
| Capability | GlitchTip | Airbrake |
|---|---|---|
| Filter keys | Search box | ✔: 27 keys as chips |
| Counts per filter | ✘: not shown | ✔: "N of M" per group |
| Breakdown inside a group | Tag bars | ✔: Aggregations tab |
| Bulk actions | ✔: resolve, ignore, merge, delete | ✔: bulk resolve |
**Verdict: Airbrake.** Its filters and aggregations answer "who and where" faster than anything in GlitchTip.
## Browser errors and source maps
Airbrake's browser notifier stayed out of my test, so this part covers GlitchTip alone.
With maps uploaded by `sentry-cli`, GlitchTip traced the wishlist crash back to its source line:
Each browser event lists the user, browser and OS. There's no session replay, and no page-load timing came through. Airbrake sells a browser notifier with source map support, which I didn't test.
**Verdict: Not compared.**
## Release tracking and regressions
Release tracking should tell you which fixed bug came back after a deploy. GlitchTip ties a fix to the next release. Airbrake resolves everything on each deploy by default and counts what returns.
The rules that move an error between states differ:
When 1.1.0 carried the coupon bug back, both tools reopened it, and the status was the only clue.
### GlitchTip: Resolve in next release
GlitchTip's status menu includes **Resolve in next release**:
When 1.1.0 brought the bug back, it reopened to **Unresolved**, tagged with the new release:
There's no regressed label, no activity entry, and the release page lists uploaded files only.
### Airbrake: Everything resolved, everything back
Airbrake's project setting resolves every error in an environment on each deploy, and it was on by default:
So the 1.1.0 deploy resolved all five groups, and all five came back. The crash group showed the only hint:
"23 since last deploy" is there, with no regressed label. Because this group held both crashes, only **Aggregations** could tell me that both bugs had returned. The deploy page added to the confusion:
It reported "Fixed errors 0" while the activity feed said the deploy resolved four.
> **Worth turning on in GlitchTip:** prefer **Resolve in next release** to a plain resolve, and note the fix in a comment for whoever opens the issue later.
>
> **Worth turning on in Airbrake:** report each deploy with a distinct revision, so its fixed and introduced counts can work, and connect Jira if you want regressions surfaced, since its integration can reopen tickets on recurrence.
### Release comparison
| Capability | GlitchTip | Airbrake |
|---|---|---|
| Fix tied to a release | ✔: Resolve in next release | ✘: one-click resolve |
| Resolve on deploy | ✘: not offered | ✔: on by default |
| Counts since the last deploy | ✘: not shown | ✔: per group |
| Release page | ✘: files only | Deploy page, counts unreliable in my test |
| Reopen recorded | ✘: no history | ✘: no activity entry |
| Regressed label | ✘: none | ✘: none |
**Verdict: Mixed.** GlitchTip lets you mark a fix for the next release, and Airbrake tells you how often an error came back since the deploy. Neither tells you plainly that a fixed bug regressed.
[summary]
Both tools brought the coupon bug back without marking its row. In my Better Stack test, that same returning error showed a red "Reoccurred" badge in the list:
Nothing else in the list changed, and the error's feed logs when it came back. There's no deploy tracking in Better Stack, yet the regression is visible from the list itself.
**[Spot returning bugs at a glance](https://betterstack.com/error-tracking)**
[/summary]
## Performance monitoring
Both tools time requests. Airbrake does it from its notifier with no setup. GlitchTip needed one setting before any data appeared.
### Airbrake: Route timing by default
Airbrake's performance overview showed requests, Apdex, mean response time and error rate after one run:
The routes table, sorted by the 95th percentile, put the two slow endpoints first:
Detail stops at the route. There are no traces or spans, and the route's breakdown and **Queries** tab were empty in my test.
### GlitchTip: Averages, after a fix
With Sentry SDK 11, GlitchTip first showed nothing:
The SDK now sends spans as a stream, a format GlitchTip doesn't ingest. With `traceLifecycle: 'static'`, routes appeared with average durations. On 1.2.0, which Airbrake didn't run, checkout's average rose from 3.27 ms to 752.27 ms, blended across releases, with no trace to open.
### Performance comparison
| Capability | GlitchTip | Airbrake |
|---|---|---|
| Works out of the box | ✘: needs a setting with SDK 11 | ✔: yes |
| Percentiles | ✘: averages only | ✔: p95 per route |
| Apdex | ✘: not shown | ✔: shown |
| Traces | ✘: not offered | ✘: not offered |
| Release filter | ✘: not offered | ✘: no deploy markers |
**Verdict: Airbrake, narrowly.** It gave percentiles and Apdex without setup. Neither shows a trace, so both stop at "this route is slow".
[summary]
Airbrake stops at the route and GlitchTip at an average, so neither shows why a request got slow. Better Stack received the failing 1.2.0 checkout in my test and opened it as a full list of spans:
Most of its 2.19 s went to the book query, at 1.53 s, with 660 ms on the card charge. The cause sits on the failed request itself.
**[Find the span behind a slow route](https://betterstack.com/tracing)**
[/summary]
## Logs and events
Logs sent with the Sentry SDK land in GlitchTip's own log view:
After one run there were 233 entries to search or filter, though none of them expands. Airbrake has no logs product. Its plans list only error monitoring and performance monitoring:
**Verdict: GlitchTip.** Airbrake has nowhere to put a log line.
[summary]
GlitchTip's logs sit apart from its errors, and Airbrake has none. One click from the failed checkout's error in my Better Stack test opened that request's logs in Live tail:
Next to the failure is the request's own slow-query warning, so the explanation is already on screen.
**[Follow an error into its logs](https://betterstack.com/log-management)**
[/summary]
## Uptime and alerts
GlitchTip includes uptime monitors and alert rules. Airbrake has per-user email toggles, Slack and Teams posting, and issue tracker integrations, but no uptime checks:
Its Jira integration can reopen a ticket when a resolved error recurs, which makes up for the missing regression label. I connected nothing and couldn't run uptime checks against localhost.
**Verdict: Not compared.**
## AI-assisted debugging
GlitchTip adds a "copy for AI" link to every event, for pasting into an assistant you already use. I found no AI feature in Airbrake's app or on its pricing page. I didn't test GlitchTip's link.
**Verdict: Not compared.**
[summary]
GlitchTip offers a copy button and Airbrake offers nothing, so the analysis is yours either way. Better Stack's AI SRE got the bad release to explain, without seeing any code:
It found the single slow query and cleared the database host, then tied 10 of 48 failed charges to the new release. That took around four minutes and $0.49, with both causes right.
**[Let AI SRE review your next release](https://betterstack.com/ai-sre)**
[/summary]
## Pricing
GlitchTip counts errors, transactions and logs as events from one pool. Airbrake prices a package, by users and features, plus an error tier.
These figures come from GlitchTip's pricing page on November 9, 2026 and Airbrake's on the same day. Recheck both before buying.
### Free plans and trials
| Item | GlitchTip | Airbrake |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | ✔: 1,000 events a month | ✘: none |
| Retention | 30 days | Not applicable |
| Trial | Not applicable | Free trial, card required |
| Past the quota | Drops some events, then all at double the quota | Not applicable |
### Entry-level paid plans
| Item | GlitchTip Small | Airbrake Dev | Airbrake Basic |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $15 a month | $19 a month | $38 a month |
| Users | Unlimited | 1 | Unlimited, 3 teams |
| Errors included | 100,000 events | 25,000 on the first tier | Price set by error tier |
| Retention | 90 days | 30 days | 30 days |
| Annual discount | Offered, amount not stated | 10% | 10% |
Airbrake's Pro package costs $76 a month and adds audit logs and spike forgiveness. Its error tiers run from $19 for 25,000 errors to $799 for 5 million. GlitchTip's Medium plan costs $50 for 500,000 events.
### What costs extra
| Need | GlitchTip | Airbrake |
|---|---|---|
| More volume | $0.17 per 1,000 events on demand | From $0.00065 per extra error |
| Logs | Included as events | ✘: not offered |
| Performance | Included as events | Performance events, priced per tier |
| Run it yourself | ✔: open source | ✘: not offered |
### Comparing the actual cost
At each tier I lined up, GlitchTip came out cheaper. Its Small plan covers 100,000 events for $15 a month, with unlimited users and 90 days of history. Airbrake's Dev package costs $19 a month for one user and 25,000 errors, and a team needs Basic at $38.
Airbrake's price buys route performance that works without setup, plus its filters and aggregations. GlitchTip's buys logs and the option to host it yourself. For Airbrake against another hosted tool, see our [Honeybadger vs Airbrake comparison](https://betterstack.com/community/comparisons/honeybadger-vs-airbrake/).
**Verdict: GlitchTip.** It costs less, includes more volume and keeps your data longer.
## Full feature comparison
| Feature | GlitchTip | Airbrake |
|---|---|---|
| SDK | Sentry's SDKs | Airbrake notifier |
| Free plan | ✔: 1,000 events | ✘: trial with a card |
| Server capture | ✔: all failures | ✔: all failures |
| Handled flag | ✔: per event | ✘: not shown |
| Server source lines | ✔: from the SDK | ✘: `file://` paths unsupported |
| Breadcrumbs on server errors | Mixed: other requests leak in | ✘: JSON parameter only |
| Grouping | Exact message | Message pattern |
| Filters with counts | ✘: not offered | ✔: 27 keys |
| Resolve in next release | ✔: offered | ✘: not offered |
| Resolve on deploy | ✘: not offered | ✔: on by default |
| Performance | Averages, after a setting | ✔: p95 and Apdex by default |
| Logs | ✔: basic | ✘: not offered |
| Uptime | Included, not tested | ✘: not offered |
| Self-hosting | ✔: open source | ✘: not offered |
## Which should you choose?
Decide whether you want cheap, readable error pages or filters and route timing out of the box.
### Choose GlitchTip if you want low cost and readable errors
GlitchTip showed the failing server line, kept different bugs apart, and stores logs in the same event pool. It starts free, costs $15 a month for a team, and you can host it yourself.
Its message grouping splits bugs by their values, its release pages are thin, and its performance needs a setting before it works. For GlitchTip next to a tool that scores each release, read our [GlitchTip vs BugSnag comparison](https://betterstack.com/community/comparisons/glitchtip-vs-bugsnag/).
### Choose Airbrake if you triage by user and route
Airbrake's filters, aggregations and route error rates make it quick to see who a bug hits and where. Its notifier times every route from the start, and resolve on deploy keeps the list fresh after each release.
The cost is in clarity. It merged two different crashes into one group with no way to split them, shows no server code for `file://` paths, and requires a card to try. For Airbrake against a broader platform, see our [Sentry vs Airbrake comparison](https://betterstack.com/community/comparisons/sentry-vs-airbrake/).
## FAQ
### Does Airbrake have a free plan?
No. Airbrake offers a free trial, but it needs a card to start. GlitchTip's Free plan covers 1,000 events a month with no card.
### Can Airbrake split a group that holds two different bugs?
Not that I found. Airbrake grouped my two `TypeError` crashes by a shared message pattern and offered no split or merge control.
### Does GlitchTip show performance data?
Yes, as average duration per route. With Sentry SDK 11, set `traceLifecycle: 'static'` first, or nothing appears.
### Which is cheaper?
GlitchTip. Its Small plan costs $15 a month for 100,000 events and unlimited users. Airbrake's Dev package costs $19 a month for one user and 25,000 errors.
## Final thoughts
The two tools fail in opposite directions. GlitchTip shows you too many rows, and you merge them. Airbrake shows you too few, and a second bug can sit inside the first until someone opens its aggregations tab.
Extra rows cost you a minute of tidying, while a hidden bug costs you a release. If you can only afford one kind of mistake, **take GlitchTip's**.