head to head · open source
monolog vs g3log
monolog has 21,405 GitHub stars, 1,910 forks, 3 open issues and last shipped yesterday. g3log has 964 stars, 280 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped 16 days ago. monolog leads on adoption by 2,120% (21,405 vs 964 stars). monolog is written in PHP under MIT; g3log is written in C++ under Unlicense. monolog has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, g3log 29%. monolog was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (logger, 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 | g3log | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 21K | ★ 964 |
| License | MIT | Unlicense |
| Written in | PHP | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-09-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.9K | ⑂ 280 |
| 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 g3log if
- You want the g3log feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Unlicense license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and g3log fits your workflow better
About monolog
Monolog is a logging library for PHP that sends log records to files, sockets, inboxes, databases, and various web services. It ships with the handlers, formatters, and processors needed to route records where they belong, and special handlers allow more advanced logging strategies than a single output stream. The library lives in the PHP ecosystem and is distributed through Packagist as monolog/monolog . It is released under the MIT license and has been developed for sixteen years, with more than twenty one thousand stars and roughly nineteen hundred forks on GitHub.
read the full monolog overview →
About g3log
G3log is an asynchronous, crash safe C++ logging library for OSX, Windows, and several Linux distributions, aimed at C++ developers building critical task systems that must not lose log records when a process dies.
read the full g3log overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is monolog or g3log more popular?
monolog has 21,405 GitHub stars and g3log has 964. monolog has the larger community by that measure.
Are monolog and g3log free?
Both are open source. monolog is licensed under MIT and g3log under Unlicense. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between monolog and g3log?
monolog is written in PHP and g3log 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 g3log?
Choose monolog if you want the larger community (21,405 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose g3log if its feature set, stack or Unlicense licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.