Comparison
Logfire vs Sentry
Sentry catches exceptions. Logfire shows you everything—logs, traces, LLM calls, and yes, errors too. Complete observability for the AI era.
Feature Comparison
Quick comparison
| Feature | Logfire | Sentry |
|---|---|---|
| Primary Focus | Full observability (logs, traces, AI) | Error monitoring |
| AI/LLM Support | First-class, automatic instrumentation | Basic (treats AI calls like any function) |
| Logging | Structured logs with full context | Limited, error-focused |
| Live View | Real-time 'pending spans' | No equivalent |
| Query Interface | SQL (PostgreSQL) | Custom UI |
| Distributed Tracing | Full support | Limited performance tracing |
| Pricing | Per-span ($2/million) | Per-event + quotas |
Key Differences
Why teams choose Logfire
Complete Observability vs Just Errors
Sentry captures exceptions and performance issues. It's excellent at what it does, but it only shows you when things go wrong. Logfire provides full observability: structured logs with full context, distributed traces across your entire system, real-time monitoring with "pending spans," and automatic AI visibility.
Built for AI Applications
Sentry treats AI calls like any other function. You'll see that an error occurred, but not what prompt was sent, what the model responded, token usage, or tool calls. Logfire was built for AI—one function call gives you complete LLM visibility.
Live Debugging
Sentry shows you errors after they happen. Logfire has "pending spans"—see what's happening right now. Watch requests in real-time, see where they're spending time, debug performance issues as they occur.
SQL-Powered Analytics
Query with SQL. "Show me all FastAPI requests that called our LLM more than 3 times." "What's the average token usage by endpoint?" AI assistants are excellent at writing these queries for you.
Decision Guide
Which should you choose?
Choose Logfire if...
- ✓You want logs, traces, AND error tracking in one tool
- ✓You're building AI applications and need to observe prompts, responses, token usage
- ✓You want to see what's happening right now, not just errors
- ✓You want to query your data with familiar SQL
- ✓You don't want to juggle Sentry + logging service + APM tool
Choose Sentry if...
- •Your primary need is catching and triaging errors
- •You need robust JavaScript error tracking with source maps
- •You rely on deep integrations with Jira, GitHub Issues, etc.
- •You want battle-tested error handling with extensive documentation
FAQ
Common questions
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