head to head · open source
monolog vs debug
monolog has 21,404 GitHub stars, 1,921 forks, 3 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. debug has 11,456 stars, 997 forks, 96 open issues and last shipped 20 days ago. monolog leads on adoption by 87% (21,404 vs 11,456 stars). monolog is written in PHP under MIT; debug is written in JavaScript under MIT. monolog has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, debug 9%. monolog 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 | debug | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 21K | ★ 11K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | PHP | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-01 | 2026-10-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.9K | ⑂ 997 |
| 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 debug if
- You want the debug feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and debug 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 debug
debug A tiny JavaScript debugging utility modelled after Node.js core's debugging technique. Works in Node.js and web browsers. Installation Usage debug exposes a function; simply pass this function the name of your module, and it will return a decorated version of console.error for you to pass debug statements to. This will allow you to toggle the debug output for different parts of your module as well as the module as a whole. Example app.js : Example worker.js : The DEBUG environment variable is then used to enable these based on space or comma delimited names. Here are some examples: Windows command prompt…
read the full debug overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is monolog or debug more popular?
monolog has 21,404 GitHub stars and debug has 11,456. monolog has the larger community by that measure.
Are monolog and debug free?
Both are open source. monolog is licensed under MIT and debug under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between monolog and debug?
monolog is written in PHP and debug in JavaScript. 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 debug?
Choose monolog if you want the larger community (21,404 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose debug if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.