Name: PaperTrail
Rating: 8 (11 reviews)
Author: Egis Software

Help Desk

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Batch Management Software

Cross-Browser Testing

Functional Testing

Mobile App Development

PHP Frameworks

Product Analytics

Development

Learning Management

Online Proctoring Software

Education

Board Management

Business Intelligence (BI)

Collaboration

Data Discovery and Visualization

Payment Facilitation

Policy Management

Privacy Policy Generators

Enterprise

Accounting

Accounts Payable

CTRM

Online Trading

Finance and Accounting

Applicant Tracking

Compensation Management

Corporate Learning Management

HR Compliance

HR Management

Payroll

Recruitment Agency

Talent Intelligence

Talent Management

Workforce Analytics

Workforce Management

Human Resources

API Design

Cloud Migration

Cloud Storage

Container Management

Content Delivery Networks (CDN)

Data Analytics  and BI Services

Data Warehouse

DevOps

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Protection

Embedded Business Intelligence (BI)

Fraud Detection

Incident Response

Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS)

Managed Public Cloud Infrastructure

Mobile Identity

Network Performance Monitoring

Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)

Privileged Access Management

Requirements Management

Technology Scouting Software

Traffic Switching

Unified Communications Monitoring

Workload Automation

Information Technology

A/B Testing

Ad Serving & Retargeting

All-in-One Marketing

Content Management

Email Marketing

Landing Page

Marketing Automation

Online Reputation Management

Social Media Management

Social Media Publishing

Survey & Forms Building

Web Analytics

Marketing

Project Management

Professional Services

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Sales

Cloud Access Security Brokers

Secure Access Service Edge (SASE)

Security

Dental

Direct Secure Messaging

Intelligent Document Processing

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### Log Management
User feedback on PaperTrail's log management features is generally positive, with many highlighting the ease of setting up and using the platform for aggregating and analyzing logs. Users appreciate the ability to log information directly from the code base and the powerful search capabilities for efficient log monitoring. However, some users have noted limitations in the platform's analysis features, requiring them to export logs for further analysis. Despite this, PaperTrail is commended for its ability to centralize logs from various services, aiding in troubleshooting and issue resolution. The platform's real-time log tracking and alerting functionalities are also praised for their effectiveness in identifying and addressing errors promptly.

### Application and Server Monitoring
Users are consistently praising PaperTrail's application and server monitoring capabilities. They appreciate the ease of setup with servers and the ability to keep all logs in one centralized location. The feature of having multiple machines per host is highlighted as a valuable asset, along with the flexibility to send errors through various channels like email, webhooks, or integrations. Additionally, users find that PaperTrail's ability to aggregate logs from different sources simplifies the process of analyzing errors and enhances the overall monitoring experience.

### Search and Analysis Tools
Users unanimously praise PaperTrail's robust search and analysis tools for their efficiency and ease of use. The consensus among reviewers is that the search capabilities provided by PaperTrail greatly enhance log management and monitoring tasks. Users appreciate the lightning-fast search functionality, live tail feature, and the flexibility to create system groups for streamlined analysis. The powerful search options make it easy to pinpoint specific logs and errors quickly, saving valuable time and effort in troubleshooting processes. Additionally, the user-friendly interface and easy setup contribute to a positive user experience when utilizing PaperTrail's search and analysis tools.

### Debugging and Troubleshooting
Users consistently praise PaperTrail for its robust debugging and troubleshooting capabilities. They appreciate the ease of setting up logs on live servers, enabling them to identify and resolve issues swiftly without the need for live debugging. The ability to log information directly from the code base and efficiently track errors has been highlighted as a valuable feature by many users. Additionally, the platform's user-friendly interface and diverse integration options have been commended for streamlining the troubleshooting process and enhancing overall efficiency in resolving issues.

### Integration and Setup
While users appreciate PaperTrail's ease of setup for Windows and Linux hosts, as well as its tools for testing and configuration, there are concerns about its limited integration options with other software and platforms. Some users find the absence of an offline mode inconvenient, especially when internet access is restricted. Additionally, the complexity of setting up custom parsing, particularly with regex, poses a challenge for some users. Despite these drawbacks, the platform's ability to manage billions of log messages efficiently and integrate with existing services is acknowledged. Users also value the team features and alerting capabilities provided by PaperTrail.

Users of PaperTrail have provided several recommendations based on their experiences with the log management tool. First, many users recommend PaperTrail for its effectiveness in troubleshooting application issues. They find it to be a useful tool, particularly for Ruby on Rails developers who face log-related problems. Second, users suggest that PaperTrail is a great add-on for Heroku apps. It integrates seamlessly and provides valuable functionality for managing logs in this environment. Third, users recommend using PaperTrail for simple log parsing and search. They find it easy to set up and use, and appreciate the ability to search through logs efficiently. Overall, reviewers have found PaperTrail to be a reliable tool with decent free plan options that include limited archives and searchable logs. It is also compatible with popular logging systems like rsyslog and NXLog, making it accessible for use on different platforms. While some users believe that there may be better alternatives available, they still find value in using PaperTrail and recommend exploring competitors to make an informed decision. Additionally, users suggest tuning and filtering logs sent to PaperTrail to avoid excessive costs as log size grows. With these recommendations in mind, new users can assess whether PaperTrail meets their specific needs for log management and analysis.

Limited Integration Options: Some users have mentioned that PaperTrail has limited integration options with other software or platforms, making it difficult to seamlessly incorporate it into their existing workflow.

Steep Learning Curve and Lack of Documentation: Several users have found PaperTrail to be not user-friendly, with a steep learning curve for beginners and lacking good documentation. This has made it challenging for new users to effectively navigate and utilize the platform.

Inadequate Analysis Features: Users have expressed dissatisfaction with the limited analysis features offered by PaperTrail. Many have had to export logs to another platform in order to identify anomalies and trends, which adds an extra step and complexity to their logging process.

Fast and Easy to Use: Users have consistently praised PaperTrail as a cloud-based log management tool that is fast and easy to use. Many reviewers have mentioned that they appreciate the simplicity and effectiveness of PaperTrail in managing logs, making it a seamless experience for them.

Customized Tags and Labels: The ability to create customized tags and labels has been highly valued by users as it enhances the efficiency of document management. Several reviewers have highlighted how this feature allows them to organize and categorize their logs effectively, making it easier to find specific information when needed.

Automation and Workflow Processes: Users appreciate the automation and workflow processes offered by PaperTrail. Numerous reviewers have expressed their satisfaction with the automated features provided by PaperTrail, which streamline their log management tasks. This functionality saves time and effort for users, allowing them to focus on other important aspects of their work.

PaperTrail is a versatile software that offers a range of use cases, satisfying various user needs. Clients with compliance requirements benefit from PaperTrail as it provides a convenient solution to retain log data without the need to host servers. Users appreciate its intuitive and fast setup, allowing for quick debugging of production applications. By aggregating logs in one place, PaperTrail helps diagnose and fix customer problems efficiently. This software saves time by providing logs according to users' specific needs, making log management more efficient. Additionally, PaperTrail serves as a comprehensive view for merged logging, simplifying the identification and resolution of issues. With its dynamic log search function, developers can quickly identify bugs and errors. Overall, PaperTrail is valued for streamlining client onboarding, contract signing, scheduling, and payments while also serving as a reliable tool for error monitoring, troubleshooting applications and databases, and facilitating secure system access.

PaperTrail is a document management software offering from Egis Software. It includes features such as storage and retrieval find any document instantly and routing and workflow streamline processes with automated routing and a rule-based workflow.

Power PDF Advanced

Power PDF Standard

Power PDF for Mac

Power PDF Business

Google Drive is a cloud file storage, synchronization, and collaboration platform and service, that features Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides for document editing and presentation.

Basic

Business

Google Drive

PaperTrail

Document management systems (DMS) encompass a set of capabilities for storing, sharing, and converting documents and files in a way that reduces dependence upon, or eliminates entirely, hardware and paper document generation and storage. Central to document management is imaging, file type conversion, versioning, and metadata management with document editing and access controls. Document management type features might also be contained in an enterprise content management (ECM) system or a digital asset management (DAM) system.

Document Management

Likelihood to Recommend

Performance

Usability

Ease of integration

Egis Software

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Stackify

IBM Cloud Databases

Rapid7 InsightOps

Director of Engineering

PaperTrail 2018-04-14 11:03:14

Logz.io

Wordpress Developer

PaperTrail 2018-03-08 11:52:45

Heroku Platform

Dashlane Password Manager

LastPass for Business

PaperTrail 2019-02-26 23:57:46

Amazon CloudWatch

PaperTrail 2019-02-11 21:30:58

MongoDB

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PaperTrail serves a really important function for us: consolidated logging. As applications get more complicated and move to multiple VMs, it can get progressively harder to figure out where problems are occurring. One of the best ways to fix this is to get logs automatically transmitted out of our VMs and into a holistic view. PaperTrail does that for us.

UI Tools are Real Time: Pulling up a logging trace means having a view that will reload in near-real-time
PaperTrail works with existing, open-source logging software; all we need to do is drop it into our projects and point the URLs to PaperTrail

Interface is aging and in need of a re-write. It's functional, but not all that nice to work with
While the logs are near-real-time, they could greatly improve the speed at which logs are available in the UI
Pricing plans are not all that competitive with newer offerings with other companies

PaperTrail saves developers ($$$) a lot of time trying to track down where errors occured; rather than needing to SSH into machines and view error logs, all error logs for certain applications are available in one view

Sumo Logic, Graylog, Loggly, Logentries and Stackify

Our application logs and server system logs are sent to Papertrail. We use various libraries for sending logs and alerts from applications. Servers are all sending logs via rsyslog.

Makes keeping similar types of logs together. ie: app vs server
Searching logs is extremely easy. Finding what you're looking for is extremely easy.
Setting up new applications or servers is extremely simple as well.

I'd like to see their free tier offer a longer period for retaining logs.
Some UI updates would be good, it hasn't changed visually since I started using it 5 years ago.

Getting alerts on certain events is particularly helpful and has saved me lots of time searching.

We used PaperTrail with Heroku to see our apps logs.

Save and show logs, from several apps, at the same time if you want.
Customization to group and direct filter logs.
Quickly and easy search logs.

Only the last two days of logs are available to search in the online app with the free version, but you can download the oldest logs.

Before PaperTrail we didn't save all of our logs.
This was an important improvement to debug our apps.

My organization uses PaperTrail to collect logs from our micro-services. It is easy for engineers to debug issues with PaperTrail when they can use correlation IDs to access all of the logs for a request across different services in one console. Occasionally, we use PaperTrail to create alerts for certain log events.

PaperTrail is less expensive than many of its competitors.
PaperTrail is very easy to set up; you can start collecting logs in no time.
It is easy to configure email alerts and Slack integrations with PaperTrail.

It is hard to search for all of the contexts that occur around a query. I've had to download logs from PaperTrail and use grep.
Live tailing is fine, but searching old logs can be very slow.
PaperTrail does not offer any analytics features.

PaperTrail helps our engineers to debug problems faster.
PaperTrail allows our engineers to focus on building features rather than configuring and maintaining log aggregation infrastructure.

We use PaperTrail to provide cloud logging for several web apps and services, particularly those running on Heroku where PaperTrail is a convenient plugin. In development, PaperTrail helps us build and debug faster. In production, PaperTrail is a reliable tool for storing, managing, and viewing logs across all of our applications.

Powerful and intuitive search syntax
Instant, super-easy setup
Free plan is very useful for development. Paid plans are very reasonably priced.
Easily interface with PaperTrail through browser, CLI, or API

PaperTrail could improve how they handle hitting plan limits

Free plan is sufficient for development and small services, and the paid plans are very cheap at low log volume. For us, the price is right with PaperTrail - though I can't speak to how their pricing compares at very high volumes.
Adding cloud-logging to your apps can really speed up development and debugging - the impact to engineering productivity cannot be understated.

PaperTrail

Overview

What is PaperTrail?