Free & Open Source

Rails Error Tracking
Self-Hosted & Free

A powerful open-source alternative to Sentry, Honeybadger, and Rollbar for Ruby on Rails. Track exceptions, capture local variables, and debug errors—without monthly fees.

Perfect for teams wanting full control over their error data with zero vendor lock-in.

Get Started Free View on GitHub
Faultline Rails error tracking dashboard showing grouped exceptions, error counts, and status management

Why choose self-hosted error tracking?

Full Data Control

Your error data stays on your servers. Perfect for GDPR, HIPAA, and SOC2 compliance requirements.

No Monthly Bills

Unlike Sentry, Honeybadger, or Rollbar—no per-error pricing, no tier limits, no surprise invoices.

No Vendor Lock-in

Open source MIT license. Fork it, modify it, run it forever. Your error tracking, your rules.

Enterprise-grade Rails error tracking features

Everything you need to capture, track, and debug Ruby exceptions

Automatic Exception Capture

Rack middleware and Rails error reporting API capture all exceptions automatically. Works with background jobs, controllers, and manual reporting.

Local Variable Capture

Like Sentry and Honeybadger's best feature—capture variable values at the exact raise point. Debug production errors without reproducing them.

Source Code Context

See the exact Ruby code that failed with syntax highlighting. Side-by-side view with local variables—like debugging in your IDE.

Smart Error Grouping

Intelligent fingerprinting groups similar errors together. Reduce noise, identify patterns, and focus on what matters.

Multi-Channel Notifications

Slack, Telegram, email (Resend), and webhooks. Smart rate limiting prevents alert fatigue during error storms.

GitHub Issue Integration

Create GitHub issues directly from errors with full context—stack traces, local variables, and source code snippets included.

Full-Text Search

Search errors by exception class, message, or file path. PostgreSQL native search or SQLite/MySQL fallback.

Interactive Charts

Time-series charts show error trends over time. Zoom in on specific periods to investigate spikes and patterns.

Sensitive Data Filtering

Automatic masking of passwords, tokens, and API keys. Integrates with Rails filter_parameters for consistent protection.

Debugger-like error inspection

Side-by-side source code and variables—just like your IDE's debugger

Faultline error detail view showing exception message, request context, stack trace, and occurrence timeline for Rails error monitoring
Error detail view with full context including request parameters, headers, and custom data
Faultline debugger inspector showing Ruby source code with syntax highlighting alongside captured local variables for Rails exception debugging
Debugger inspector with source code context and local variable values at the point of exception

Faultline vs Sentry vs Honeybadger vs Rollbar

See how Faultline compares to popular Rails error tracking services

Feature Faultline Sentry Honeybadger Rollbar
Self-hosted option ✓ Free Paid only ✗ ✗
Free tier limits Unlimited 5K errors/mo 1 project 5K errors/mo
Local variable capture ✓ ✓ ✓ ✗
Smart error grouping ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
GitHub integration ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Slack/email notifications ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Full-text search ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Rails native ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Data ownership 100% yours Their servers Their servers Their servers
Open source MIT License BSL (limited) Proprietary Proprietary

When to choose Faultline over Sentry or Honeybadger:

  • ✓ You need full control over error data for compliance (GDPR, HIPAA, SOC2)
  • ✓ You want to avoid recurring SaaS costs that scale with your traffic
  • ✓ Your application is Rails-only and you don't need multi-language support
  • ✓ You prefer simplicity over feature bloat—just error tracking done well

Frequently asked questions

Common questions about Rails error tracking with Faultline

What is Faultline?
Faultline is a free, open-source, self-hosted error tracking solution for Ruby on Rails applications. It's an alternative to paid services like Sentry, Honeybadger, and Rollbar that you can run on your own infrastructure with zero monthly costs.

How does Faultline compare to Sentry for Rails?
Faultline offers similar core features to Sentry including automatic error capture, smart grouping, notifications, and local variable capture. The key difference is that Faultline is completely free and self-hosted, while Sentry's free tier is limited to 5,000 errors per month. Faultline is also Rails-native and simpler to set up for Ruby applications.

Is Faultline a good Honeybadger alternative?
Yes, Faultline provides comparable features to Honeybadger including error grouping, local variable capture, GitHub integration, and multi-channel notifications. Unlike Honeybadger's subscription pricing that starts at $49/month, Faultline is free and open source with no limits on errors or projects.

Can Faultline replace Rollbar for Rails error tracking?
Faultline can replace Rollbar for Rails applications. It offers automatic exception capture, smart fingerprinting for error grouping, GitHub integration, and multiple notification channels (Slack, email, Telegram, webhooks). Unlike Rollbar, Faultline also captures local variables at the raise point, and as a self-hosted solution, you maintain full control over your error data.

Does Faultline capture local variables like Sentry?
Yes, Faultline automatically captures local variables at the exact point where exceptions are raised using Ruby's TracePoint API. This feature helps you debug production errors without needing to reproduce them—similar to Sentry and Honeybadger's paid features, but completely free.

What Ruby and Rails versions does Faultline support?
Faultline requires Ruby 3.2+ and Rails 8.0+. It works with PostgreSQL (with native full-text search), MySQL, and SQLite databases. It's designed to be a modern Rails engine that takes advantage of the latest Ruby and Rails features.

Is Faultline really free? What's the catch?
Faultline is genuinely free and open source under the MIT license. There's no catch—no premium tier, no per-error pricing, no feature gating. You host it yourself, so you're responsible for your own infrastructure costs (server, database), but for most Rails apps this is negligible since Faultline runs alongside your existing application.

Install Faultline in your Rails app

Three commands to start tracking errors. Setup takes under 5 minutes.

1 Add Faultline to your Gemfile 
gem "faultline", git: "https://github.com/dlt/faultline.git"
2 Run the Rails installer 
bundle install
rails generate faultline:install
rails db:migrate
3 Visit the error tracking dashboard 
http://localhost:3000/faultline
Read the full documentation

From the blog

Guides and insights on Rails error tracking

Comparison

Sentry vs Honeybadger vs Rollbar vs Faultline

Comprehensive comparison of Rails error tracking tools for 2025.
Analysis

The True Cost of Error Tracking

SaaS vs self-hosted: a detailed cost breakdown over 5 years.
Guide

Rails Exception Handling Best Practices

Complete guide to rescue_from, custom exceptions, and production debugging.

Start tracking Rails errors for free

Join developers who chose self-hosted error tracking over expensive SaaS subscriptions.

Get Faultline on GitHub