head to head · open source
monolog vs log
monolog has 21,402 GitHub stars, 1,920 forks, 3 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. log has 3,415 stars, 105 forks, 41 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. monolog leads on adoption by 527% (21,402 vs 3,415 stars). monolog is written in PHP under MIT; log is written in Go under MIT. monolog has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, log 3%. 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 | log | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 21K | ★ 3.4K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | PHP | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-01 | 2026-10-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.9K | ⑂ 105 |
| 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 log if
- You want the log feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and log 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 log
Log A minimal and colorful Go logging library. 🪵 It provides a leveled structured human readable logger with a small API. Unlike [standard log ][stdlog], the Charm logger provides customizable colorful human readable logging with batteries included. Uses [Lip Gloss][lipgloss] to style and colorize the output. Colorful, human readable format. Ability to customize the time stamp format. Skips caller frames and marks function as helpers. Leveled logging. Text, JSON, and Logfmt formatters. Store and retrieve logger in and from context. Slog handler. Standard log adapter. Usage Use go get to download the dependency…
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Frequently asked questions
Is monolog or log more popular?
monolog has 21,402 GitHub stars and log has 3,415. monolog has the larger community by that measure.
Are monolog and log free?
Both are open source. monolog is licensed under MIT and log under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between monolog and log?
monolog is written in PHP and log in Go. 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 log?
Choose monolog if you want the larger community (21,402 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose log if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.