head to head · open source
monolog vs clp
monolog has 21,402 GitHub stars, 1,920 forks, 3 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. clp has 1,091 stars, 95 forks, 493 open issues and last shipped yesterday. monolog leads on adoption by 1,862% (21,402 vs 1,091 stars). monolog is written in PHP under MIT; clp is written in C++ under Apache-2.0. monolog has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, clp 9%. clp was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (logging), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| monolog | clp | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 21K | ★ 1.1K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | PHP | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-11-01 | 2026-11-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.9K | ⑂ 95 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick monolog if
- You weight community size — 21K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick clp if
- You want the clp feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and clp fits your workflow better
About monolog
Monolog Logging for PHP Note This is the documentation for Monolog 3.x , if you are using older releases see the documentation for Monolog 2.x or Monolog 1.x Monolog sends your logs to files, sockets, inboxes, databases and various web services. See the complete list of handlers below. Special handlers allow you to build advanced logging strategies. This library implements the PSR 3 interface that you can type hint against in your own libraries to keep a maximum of interoperability. You can also use it in your applications to make sure you can always use another compatible logger at a later time. As of 1.11.0…
read the full monolog overview →
About clp
[![Discord][badge discord]][clp community discord] [![Slack][badge slack]][clp community slack] [![CLP on Zulip][badge zulip]][yscope community zulip] YScope's Compressed Log Processor (CLP) compresses your logs, and allows you to search the compressed logs without decompression. CLP supports both JSON logs and unstructured (i.e., free text) logs. It also supports real time log compression within several logging libraries. CLP also includes purpose built web interfaces for searching and viewing the compressed logs. To learn more about it, read our [2021 paper][clp paper 21] about handling unstructured logs and…
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Frequently asked questions
Is monolog or clp more popular?
monolog has 21,402 GitHub stars and clp has 1,091. monolog has the larger community by that measure.
Are monolog and clp free?
Both are open source. monolog is licensed under MIT and clp under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between monolog and clp?
monolog is written in PHP and clp in C++. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, monolog or clp?
Choose monolog if you want the larger community (21,402 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose clp if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.