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What are the best .NET logging frameworks?

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The Best 1 of 4 OptionsWhy?

4 Options ConsideredPriceLast Updated
Excellent
NLog
Apr 25, 2018
log4net
Mar 16, 2018
Serilog
Apr 9, 2018
BitFactory
May 19, 2015
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Excellent

NLog

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Chloe Montanez
Danish Mughal
Top Pro

Easily Configurable

•••
The config file is fairly easy to understand and modify without having to pore over pages and pages of documentation.
Danish Mughal
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.
Know any negative aspects of this option?
See 1 more Pro
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3 Other Options Considered

log4net

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Danish Mughal
Top Pro

Supports Multiple Frameworks

•••
Danish Mughal
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.
Danish Mughal
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.
Danish Mughal
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!
Danish Mughal
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.
Danish Mughal
Top Con

Confusing Documentation

•••
Documentation is quite difficult to navigate through unless you know exactly what you're looking for.
See 4 more Pros & ConsSee 4 more Pros & Cons

Serilog

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PersistentArgusPanoptes
Top Pro

Can log structured data

•••
DebonairDaphne
Top Pro

Multiple extensions

•••
You can easily configure it to log into Console / File / Seq / ElasticSearch / etc.
Solon
Top Pro

Is portable between recent .NET platforms

•••
David Morris
Top Pro

Flexible configuration options

•••
Configuring directly or using appsettings is fairly and there are many examples available.
David Morris
Top Con

Documentation is distributed among plugins

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

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Danish Mughal
Top Pro

Stupid Simple to Use

•••
Danish Mughal
Top Pro

Bloat-Free

•••
Out of the box it's only 100K - it contains the essentials for a logging framework and leaves it at that.
Danish Mughal
Top Pro

Lightweight and Solid

•••
Less complexity means fewer points of failure, and better performance.
Know any negative aspects of this option?
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61 Community Recommendations

Onze
Justin Ploegert
Angus McIntyre
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Lysander
BethLM
Ryan
MomoIshida
Callixtus
Aubrey
Hloja
+39
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