head to head · open source
Sentry vs hl
Sentry has 44,806 GitHub stars, 4,857 forks, 2,265 open issues and last shipped today. hl has 3,290 stars, 66 forks, 13 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Sentry leads on adoption by 1,262% (44,806 vs 3,290 stars). Sentry is written in Python under a custom or non-standard licence; hl is written in Rust under MIT. Sentry has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, hl 2%. Sentry was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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
| Sentry | hl | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 45K | ★ 3.3K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.9K | ⑂ 66 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Sentry if
- You weight community size — 45K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick hl if
- You want the hl feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and hl fits your workflow better
About Sentry
Sentry is an open source debugging platform for detecting, tracing, and fixing software issues in real time. It lives in the developer infrastructure ecosystem and provides error tracking and performance monitoring across languages, frameworks, and runtime environments.
read the full Sentry overview →
About hl
A fast, Rust written command line log viewer and processor that converts JSON and logfmt logs into a clear human readable format, intended for developers, SREs, and operators who read large volumes of structured logs from a terminal.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Sentry or hl more popular?
Sentry has 44,806 GitHub stars and hl has 3,290. Sentry has the larger community by that measure.
Are Sentry and hl free?
Both are open source. Sentry has no licence declared in this registry, and hl is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Sentry and hl?
Sentry is written in Python and hl in Rust. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Sentry or hl?
Choose Sentry if you want the larger community (44,806 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose hl if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.