What are the key differences between Logmanager and SolarWinds Papertrail? Key differences between Logmanager and Papertrail lie in the deployment model, control over data, feature scope, and pricing. Control over data: With Logmanager, you retain full control over your logs for as long as you need, using tamper-proof log storage that meets audit and compliance requirements (GDPR, NIS2, industry regulations, and more). Logmanager keeps logs in the customer’s own infrastructure, ensuring complete data ownership and privacy. Feature set: Logmanager delivers Papertrail’s ease of use plus significantly broader capabilities. Both solutions are easy to deploy, but Logmanager goes beyond basic log search by adding log enrichment, advanced analytics for IT security and compliance, and customizable dashboards, all without increasing complexity. Deployment: If you run a hybrid or on-premises infrastructure, prefer to keep tools in-house, have existing data center investments, or face latency concerns, Logmanager is tailor-made for your environment. Papertrail, by contrast, is designed exclusively for cloud-first setups. Pricing predictability: Logmanager offers straightforward pricing based solely on the volume of searchable logs stored each month. Papertrail’s pricing is based on a combination of ingested log volume and retention duration.
How much does SolarWinds Papertrail cost compared to Logmanager? First, SolarWinds Papertrail and Logmanager charge for logs in fundamentally different ways. Papertrail prices on how much data you send each month and how long it stays searchable, with the price rising for longer retention windows (1 to 28 days) and a 30% overage premium if you exceed your plan. Logmanager prices per GB actually stored, at a flat rate, no matter how long you keep it. That difference makes a simple “$X vs. $Y” price comparison misleading. A 100 GB/month Papertrail plan starts “from” $325/month, but that number prices what you send in a given month, not what you keep over time. A fairer way to see the difference: an organization generating 100 GB of logs a month that wants roughly a year of that data on hand has no Papertrail plan to compare against — its searchable retention tops out at 28 days, nowhere near 12 months, at any price. All paid Papertrail plans include one year of downloadable log archives. On Logmanager, that same year of accumulated data (100 GB × 12 months ≈ 1,200 GB stored) costs about $168/month on the managed cloud, annual billing — no infrastructure required, matching Papertrail’s own fully-hosted model. Self-hosting the same volume is cheaper still, around $108/month, for teams that want to run their own environment.
Can I move my existing Papertrail setup over, and how long does it take? Moving your log data off Papertrail isn’t a data migration in the traditional sense. Your log sources carry over as-is: you repoint them at Logmanager (source type, IP, destination port) instead of Papertrail’s syslog endpoint, and Logmanager’s 140+ prebuilt parsers cover most common source types automatically, so data starts flowing without building parsing from scratch. What doesn’t carry over: Papertrail-specific setup (log Groups, saved searches, and search-based alerts) has to be rebuilt in Logmanager. Its prebuilt dashboards and the no-code Blockly builder make that faster than starting from a blank page, but it isn’t a one-click import. Typical timeline: the virtual appliance deploys in about 30 minutes. Getting sources onboarded and confirming everything’s flowing usually takes 1–2 hours, with another hour or so to rebuild saved searches and alerts. One thing worth knowing before you start: this covers logs going forward, not what’s already in Papertrail. If you need your historical Papertrail archives searchable in Logmanager too, that’s a separate step, they don’t transfer over automatically as part of the switch.
How can Logmanager be deployed? Logmanager is available as either a self-hosted virtual appliance or a fully managed cloud service. For self-hosted deployments, prebuilt VA images are available for VMware, Hyper-V, and Proxmox, making it easy to get up and running without complex setup or manual configuration.
How does Logmanager ensure the security of my business data? Logmanager is a hardened appliance that ensures the confidentiality and integrity of data. It prevents any manipulation, deletion, or alteration of logs (SSH is not running on the appliance, so access to the operating system is restricted). Additionally, Logmanager secures data during transfer, uses secure storage mechanisms, and provides role-based access control to enhance strict security measures.
Is there a free Logmanager plan? Yes, there is a free version of Logmanager that includes all the features and its capabilities are limited only by the available storage – Free Plan supports up to 100 GB of log storage. It is available as a virtual appliance for VMware, Hyper-V, and Proxmox. You can get your free Logmanager Once you reach the storage limit, Logmanager automatically replaces the oldest logs with new ones. This ensures you always have the most up-to-date data without having to delete anything manually or change any settings.
