SolarWinds Papertrail is easier to set up, and in my opinion, its UI is quicker for searching specific logs. LogDNA (now Mezmo) have advantage in the UI look and in the power to create charts and counters.
Anytime we need to make any kind of log on any platform that we use, LogDNA is well suited. It is primarily used for logging errors on our server but also used for checking issues within our iOS apps when we need to identify a critical issue that is occurring. The search feature is very very good!
As a 3rd party endpoint, SolarWinds Papertrail did exactly what it needed to. My hesitation is on the technical aptitude of the colleague receiving the recommendation, as the overall level of command line skill/understanding would have to be high. Web applications are a great solution here, but MOST of them already provide some sort of logging output. The scenario would definitely be in the situation where logging wasn't readily available in the current solution space. IF something like SolarWinds Papertrail was needed, it's probably the de facto thing that I would recommend.
It's really easy to use and powerful. But at a few times, the UI may feel sluggish, which is a bit expected, since it's displaying live stream of heavy data.
It's extremely easy to use. I and new colleagues have never had any issues configuring this tool or setting it up, it works almost out of the box with very simple instructions to follow to configure it to our own environment. I would highly recommend it on that ability alone.
It is very very good. They are responsive and very helpful. They also take the time to walk you through the issues you are having. But honestly, it is so straightforward that you rarely need to get support from their team. They are very helpful when you do need their support though.
I honestly have never had the need to use the support team, as we have not run into any issues so far. If we did however, judging from how the tool itself works, I don't doubt that the team would provide excellent support for any issues that we may possibly run into.
LogDNA was already setup when I started and it is offered through Heroku so that's why it was chosen. It's also cheaper I believe. Compared to Logentries, it does the same thing.
CloudWatch, by itself, is terrible at search. CloudWatch Insights works great and has powerful search capabilities, but it's more difficult to set up alerts. Also, because Insights charges per search, you have the potential to accumulate a large bill if you need to do many searches. I like that SolarWinds Papertrail has a known monthly cost.
