A lightweight, installable error tracker & Sentry alternative, no subscription. Sentry SDKs? Yup. Instant alerts, smart error grouping, fully customizable. Run one command and track company-wide errors. Your data? It stays yours. Always.
Hey hunters 👋 It’s been a while since my last launch...
I’ve been knee-deep in error tracking for nearly a decade, interning at Bugsnag and spending most of my career at Airbrake. So when I needed a better way to track errors in my own apps, I knew what I wanted (and what I didn’t). I was fed up with monthly bills and SaaS lock-in, with my data stuck on someone else’s server. As a solo dev, I crave privacy and hate endless fees.
I first tried launching Telebugs as a SaaS in 2024, mixing error tracking with Telegram notifications, but it flopped — nobody cared. Then I stumbled on 37signals’ ONCE, and it was like a lightbulb went off. Their pay-once, self-hosted vibe inspired me to rebuild Telebugs from the ground up. It took 3½ months of solo grinding, and I’m legit stoked with the results.
Telebugs is an error tracker you pay for once, host yourself, and actually own. It’s compatible with Sentry SDKs, so it probably supports your language or framework of choice. Setup is dead simple: one command and you’re rolling in 5 minutes. It catches your errors, keeps everything on your machine, and doesn’t bug you with upsells or surprise fees.
Tech stack:
- Rails 8 + Hotwire + TailwindCSS
- SQLite (yep)
- Runs in a single Docker container
- Compatible with Sentry SDKs
- Push + email alerts (needs to be enabled explicitly)
- Rule-based data cleanup
- No analytics, no third-party calls
It’s built for people like us who just want something that works without the headache. I’d love to hear what you think. Happy to answer any questions here or over email. Cheers!
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@kyrylosilin Is there any chance it will require ongoing subscription further? it happens sometimes
@rohanrecommends currently, it supports email and push notifications. When you install Telebugs, you need to configure them explicitly. I personally prefer no notifications at all :)
@rohanrecommends If you're curious to try it out, shoot me an email and I’ll spin up a private instance just for you and your team to evaluate.
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This is such a smart idea! Love how Telebugs makes bug reporting and feedback super simple right inside your app. Definitely a productivity booster for dev teams!
@pavel_sher forgot to mention: If you're curious to try it out, shoot me an email and I’ll spin up a private instance just for you and your team to evaluate.
Hey @kyrylosilin, congrats on the launch! You've identified a good niche. I was looking into self-hosting Sentry myself and got turned off by the requirements (this article may have had something to do with it).
Do you have any plans to launch a community edition for users to try out? Typically I like to try out self-hosted services first before purchase to see if I can set them up and maintain them myself.
I don’t have plans for a community edition - there’s only one edition, and the plan is to keep it that way.
I totally understand your requirements, so feel free to shoot me an email and I’ll set you up with a personal private demo. You can invite your team, too!
Telebugs
@kyrylosilin Is there any chance it will require ongoing subscription further? it happens sometimes
Telebugs
@margo_milioni nope, that's impossible. You get the source code of the whole system and own it for life.
@kyrylosilin my concern is how secure is the data collected by the tool?
Telebugs
@mila_chong it is secure since it's on your server. You're still responsible for setting up firewall rules, etc, though
What types of notifications does Telebugs provide when errors occur?
Telebugs
@rohanrecommends currently, it supports email and push notifications. When you install Telebugs, you need to configure them explicitly. I personally prefer no notifications at all :)
Telebugs
@rohanrecommends If you're curious to try it out, shoot me an email and I’ll spin up a private instance just for you and your team to evaluate.
Telebugs
@divyansh_tiwari7 AI comment, but still thanks!
FuseBase
Nice product! What kind of data does Telebugs collect to help identify errors?
Telebugs
@pavel_sher Thank you!
It collects everything a Sentry SDK does, including:
Error message and type
Error backtrace
SQL queries
HTTP headers
Logged-in user info
Cookies
User IP address
Request URL
Query string
Request body
Dependency versions
Breadcrumbs
Any custom data you attach
Local variables aren’t collected yet, but support is on the way.
Telebugs
@pavel_sher forgot to mention: If you're curious to try it out, shoot me an email and I’ll spin up a private instance just for you and your team to evaluate.
Documentation.AI
@kyrylosilinGreat Work!
I’m curious—how does it handle scalability for larger projects, especially with the self-hosted setup
Telebugs
@roopreddy thanks Roop! Here's a breakdown:
Basically, you can process millions of errors even on a $5 VPS.
The more errors you send, the more powerful your server needs to be.
Congratulation on the launch Kyrylo! Nicely done!
Telebugs
@mykhailo_khranovskyi thanks Mike!
Hey @kyrylosilin, congrats on the launch! You've identified a good niche. I was looking into self-hosting Sentry myself and got turned off by the requirements (this article may have had something to do with it).
Do you have any plans to launch a community edition for users to try out? Typically I like to try out self-hosted services first before purchase to see if I can set them up and maintain them myself.
Telebugs
@smjburton Hey Scott! Thanks for your kind words!
I don’t have plans for a community edition - there’s only one edition, and the plan is to keep it that way.
I totally understand your requirements, so feel free to shoot me an email and I’ll set you up with a personal private demo. You can invite your team, too!