Rollbar is $13/mo (Essentials). Seismograph is a self-hosted alternative at $0.99/mo. Here's when each makes sense.
| Seismograph | Rollbar | |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting | Self-hosted, your infra | Managed SaaS (cloud only) |
| Data location | Your server, your disk | Rollbar's cloud |
| Free tier | 5,000 errors/mo | Paid only |
| Pro pricing | $0.99/mo | $13/mo (Essentials) |
| Dependencies | None (single binary + SQLite) | N/A (managed) |
| Setup time | ~30 seconds | Account signup |
| Dashboard | Built-in at /ui | Cloud dashboard |
| License | BSL 1.1 | Proprietary SaaS |
Seismograph is a single Go binary with embedded SQLite. Install it with one command, and you are running in under a minute. Your data stays on your server.
curl -fsSL https://stockyard.dev/seismograph/install.sh | sh
The pricing math between Seismograph and Rollbar changes depending on team size. Rollbar at $13/mo (Essentials) is reasonable for a solo user. At ten seats, the difference compounds. Seismograph is a flat $0.99/mo regardless of seats — the binary does not count how many people use it. For growing teams, this makes Seismograph progressively cheaper while Rollbar gets progressively more expensive.
Seismograph runs as a single static binary with an embedded SQLite database. There is no application server, no cache layer, no background worker. One process handles HTTP requests and reads from and writes to the database file directly. This simplicity is the entire point — fewer moving parts means fewer things that can break at 2 AM.
Moving from Rollbar does not have to be all-or-nothing. Some teams run Seismograph for new data while keeping Rollbar as a read-only archive of historical records. The API makes it straightforward to build a sync script if you need both systems to reflect the same data during a transition period.
Single binary. Free to start. $0.99/mo for Pro.