jentry vs GlitchTip: the Sentry-SDK-compatible alternative

jentry is a hosted error-tracking and performance-monitoring platform. Like GlitchTip, it speaks the Sentry envelope protocol, so the unmodified Sentry SDKs you already ship work out of the box — nothing to rewrite. The choice between jentry and GlitchTip mostly comes down to one question: do you want to run the error tracker yourself, or do you want it run for you?

jentry vs GlitchTip: what they have in common

It's worth being clear up front, because this is the part most comparisons get wrong: jentry and GlitchTip are not opposites. They share the most important property an error tracker can have.

• Sentry-SDK compatibility — both accept the official Sentry SDKs across languages and frameworks, using the same DSN format. You keep your existing instrumentation either way.
• Lean by design — both are deliberately lighter than running self-hosted Sentry's full stack (ClickHouse, Kafka, Snuba, Relay and friends). GlitchTip is well known for running in a tiny footprint; jentry is hosted, so its footprint isn't your problem at all.
• Core error workflow — capture, smart grouping, full stack traces, source maps, releases and alerting are the bread and butter of both tools.
• No vendor lock-in on the SDK — because both use unmodified Sentry SDKs, moving between Sentry, GlitchTip and jentry is a DSN change, not a reinstrumentation project.

The real difference: hosting model and effort

GlitchTip is open-source and self-host-first. The classic GlitchTip setup is you running it — typically a small set of containers (the web app, a background worker, PostgreSQL and Redis), which is genuinely lightweight compared to self-hosted Sentry. GlitchTip also offers its own hosted option for teams that would rather not run it. Either way, the project's center of gravity is 'you can run this yourself.'

jentry is the other side of that coin: a fully hosted SaaS, full stop. There is no server for you to provision, patch, back up, scale or upgrade. You sign up, point a DSN at it, and you're done. For a small team without a platform engineer to spare, that difference — owning a database and a worker queue versus owning nothing — is often the whole decision.

Neither model is 'better' in the abstract. Self-hosting GlitchTip means your error data stays on infrastructure you control and your only recurring cost is the box it runs on. Hosted jentry means zero ops and predictable pricing, at the cost of your data living on our infrastructure. Pick the trade-off that fits your team.

jentry vs GlitchTip: comparison table

The jentry column above is accurate to what jentry ships today. For GlitchTip, we've kept things general on purpose — feature coverage and hosted pricing change over time, so check GlitchTip's current documentation and pricing rather than trusting a number on a competitor's comparison page (ours included).

Feature coverage: where jentry reaches further

Both tools cover the core: errors, grouping, stack traces, source maps, releases and alerts. Where jentry tends to go broader is the surrounding observability surface. Out of the box jentry includes performance and transaction monitoring (p50/p95/Apdex), releases with suspect commits, cron monitoring, uptime checks, session replays, profiling, and dashboards plus Discover for ad-hoc querying — all in one hosted product.

GlitchTip deliberately keeps a tighter, simpler scope, which is part of its appeal: if all you want is crash reports with stack traces, release tracking and basic alerting, it does that cleanly and runs in a tiny footprint. If you expect to grow into performance, replays and profiling without bolting on more tools, that's where jentry's wider feature set earns its place. Always confirm GlitchTip's current capabilities in their docs — the project moves, and this list is about jentry's strengths, not GlitchTip's limits.

Migration: a DSN change either way

Because both jentry and GlitchTip use the unmodified Sentry SDKs, moving to jentry is the same one-line change whether you're coming from Sentry or from GlitchTip: keep your SDK, keep your key and project id, and point the DSN host at jentry.

# Before — sending to GlitchTip (self-hosted)
- dsn = "https://<key>@glitchtip.example.com/42"

# After — sending to jentry (your jentry DSN — no SDK change)
+ dsn = "https://<key>@jentry.app/42"

No reinstrumentation, no new SDK, no code rewrite. And because nothing about your SDK changes, rollback is the same edit in reverse — which makes trying jentry alongside or instead of GlitchTip genuinely low-risk.

When GlitchTip might be the better choice

We'd rather be honest than win every comparison. GlitchTip is a great fit when:

• You want open-source software you can read, audit, fork and self-host — that's GlitchTip's whole premise, and jentry is a closed hosted SaaS.
• Data residency or compliance requires error data to stay entirely on infrastructure you control, and you have the appetite to run a small server.
• Your needs are squarely 'crash reports with stack traces, releases and basic alerts,' and you value the smallest possible footprint over a broad feature set.
• Your recurring budget is effectively the cost of the box it runs on, and you'd rather pay in ops time than in a subscription.

If those describe you, self-hosting GlitchTip is a sensible, respected choice. It's a good project.

When jentry is the better choice

• You don't want to run, patch, back up or scale a server — you want error tracking that someone else operates.
• You want the broader feature set (performance, releases with suspect commits, crons, uptime, replays, profiling, dashboards, Discover) in one hosted product without assembling it yourself.
• You want flat, predictable pricing and a free tier to start on with no credit card.
• You're already on Sentry SDKs and want a fully hosted home for them with a one-line migration and an equally easy rollback.

Simple, predictable pricing

jentry uses flat plans: Free (5,000 events/month, no credit card), Team ($29/month for 100,000 events) and Business ($99/month for 1,000,000 events). Every plan includes the full feature set — performance, releases, crons, uptime, replays, profiling and dashboards aren't gated behind a higher tier.

With self-hosted GlitchTip your cost is essentially the server it runs on plus the time you spend maintaining it; its hosted option is priced separately and changes over time, so check GlitchTip's current pricing for that. The honest framing: compare jentry's subscription against GlitchTip's 'cheap to run but you operate it' model and decide which cost you'd rather carry — dollars or ops.

Try jentry as your GlitchTip alternative

If you like GlitchTip's Sentry-SDK compatibility but don't want to run the server, jentry gives you the same compatibility as a fully hosted SaaS with a broader feature set. Start on the free tier — no credit card — point a DSN at jentry, and your errors stream straight in. If it's not a fit, the unmodified SDKs mean rolling back is a single line.