What are the best .NET logging frameworks?

Question

6

Options
Considered

171

User
Recs.

Apr 12, 2022

Last
Updated

Here’s the Deal

The Best 1 of 6 OptionsWhy?

Best .NET logging frameworks	Price	Languages	Hosting options
92 NLog	Free	-	-
79 Serilog	Free	-	-
70 log4net	Free	-	-
-- BitFactory	-	-	-
-- JSNLog	Free	.NET, JS, PHP, Node	No

See Full List

5 Other Options Considered

Serilog

Top Pro

Can log structured data

Top Con

Documentation is distributed among plugins

Determining what logger, formatter, option is more difficult because documentation is associated with each component. See More

ResponsibleMorta's Experience

Does what is says on the tin See More

Top Pro

Flexible configuration options

Configuring directly or using appsettings is fairly and there are many examples available. See More

Suyash Gupta's Experience

Great framework with awesome documentation See More

Top Pro

Multiple extensions

You can easily configure it to log into Console / File / Seq / ElasticSearch / etc. See More

Top Pro

Is portable between recent .NET platforms

Top Pro

Log Enricher and Log Context features

Easily and extensibly enrich your log messages with contextual information such as thread or request ID. See More

See All

log4net

Top Con

Dealing with errors can be a pain

Because of the poor documentation and difficulty of configuration you might end up spending a lot of time just trying to fix things that aren't working. See More

Top Pro

Supports Multiple Frameworks

Top Con

Confusing Documentation

Documentation is quite difficult to navigate through unless you know exactly what you're looking for. See More

Top Pro

Robust

Has all the features you'll most likely need, and is quite configurable. Basically what you'd expect from a very popular and widely-used framework. See More

Top Pro

Modular and Extendable

Has plugins for most of the things you'll need to get done without having to deal with too much unnecessary functionality. See More

Top Pro

Widely Used

Using log4net is a safe bet - many other open-source projects use it as well and it'll be just another dependency you don't have to worry about. This also means finding support to fix bugs is a lot easier! See More

See All

JSNLog

Top Pro

No dependencies

No dependencies on other JavaScript libraries See More

Top Con

No reporting capabilities

Your server logging solution should provide that, and JSNlog integrates with Elmah, Log4Net, NLog, Serilog, Common.Logging. See More

RickZeeland's Experience

Open source JavaScript logging package that logs JavaScript errors, AJAX timeouts and other client side events in your server side log. Supports Elmah, Log4Net, NLog, Serilog, Common.Logging. See More

Specs

Languages:.NET, JS, PHP, Node

Hosting options:No

Top Pro

Free

Top Con

No hosted option

You'll have to store client-side logs along with your server-side logs. See More

Top Pro

Stack traces

JSNLog passes exception log messages with its stack trace. See More

Top Pro

Integrates with your existing server-side logging package

Not a hosted option, so you'll store client-side logs along with your server-side logs. See More

See All

Retrace

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score 75 · Accepted Answer

NLog

Top Pro

Easy to set up

Getting starting with NLog is quick and you can be up and running in a matter of minutes by following the official Getting Started tutorial. See More

Suyash Gupta's Experience

Not able to configure it for Xamarin Platform. No documentation or working sample available online. See More

Top Pro

Easily configurable

The config file is fairly easy to understand and modify without having to pore over pages and pages of documentation. See More

Top Pro

Supports Semantic Logging

What are the best .NET logging frameworks?

The Best 1 of 6 OptionsWhy?

NLog

My Recommendation for NLog

My Recommendation for NLog

Easy to set up

Easily configurable

Supports Semantic Logging

5 Other Options Considered

Serilog

My Recommendation for Serilog

My Recommendation for Serilog

Can log structured data

Documentation is distributed among plugins

Flexible configuration options

Multiple extensions

Is portable between recent .NET platforms

Log Enricher and Log Context features

log4net

My Recommendation for log4net

My Recommendation for log4net

Dealing with errors can be a pain

Supports Multiple Frameworks

Confusing Documentation

Robust

Modular and Extendable

Widely Used

BitFactory

My Recommendation for BitFactory

My Recommendation for BitFactory

Lightweight and Solid

Stupid Simple to Use

Bloat-Free

JSNLog

My Recommendation for JSNLog

My Recommendation for JSNLog

No dependencies

No reporting capabilities

Free

No hosted option

Stack traces

Integrates with your existing server-side logging package

Retrace

My Recommendation for Retrace

My Recommendation for Retrace

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