A European Alternative to Sentry
Error tracking systems store production error data: stack traces, request metadata, and sometimes user context.
If you use a hosted service like Sentry, that data leaves your infrastructure and is processed somewhere else. For many teams that’s fine. For others, the question naturally follows: where exactly does that data go?
Bugsink is a European-built alternative to Sentry. It works with the same SDK ecosystem and can be used either as hosted EU SaaS or self-hosted software.
Why this matters more now
The concern itself isn’t new. GDPR has applied since 25 May 2018, and error trackers routinely store stack traces and request context that can include personal data. Keeping that data inside the EU avoids the entire “international data transfer” discussion.
More recently, the topic has widened beyond compliance. European governments increasingly talk about digital sovereignty and cloud exit strategies — the ability to run critical infrastructure without depending on foreign-controlled services.
Recent geopolitical events reinforced that concern. In January 2026, the U.S. administration again discussed taking control of Greenland, and earlier sanctions against the International Criminal Court showed how infrastructure and jurisdiction can intersect with politics.
For developers and organizations handling production systems, the takeaway is straightforward: where software runs and who controls it matters.
The European alternative to Sentry
If the goal is to keep error tracking inside Europe there are two practical models:
- European SaaS — a hosted service operated in the EU
- Self-hosted software — the system runs on your own infrastructure
Bugsink supports both.
Hosted in the EU
Bugsink can be used as a hosted service operated from Europe.
This keeps the operational simplicity of SaaS while ensuring the vendor and infrastructure remain inside the European jurisdictional sphere. There is no infrastructure to run, no upgrades to schedule, and no storage or retention planning to think about.
The system focuses specifically on error tracking: grouped issues, stack traces with local variables, alerting, and triage information. It is compatible with the Sentry SDK ecosystem, which means applications can continue using the same client libraries.
Pricing
Pricing is based on event volume and retention. The free tier includes 15K events per month, with 5K retained for 30 days. Paid plans start at $16 per month for 75K events, with higher tiers available for larger volumes:
Free: 15K events/month (5K retained), 1 user 75K: $16/mo 600K: $50/mo 3M: $158/mo 15M: $568/mo 50M: $1,288/mo
At higher volumes this makes Bugsink up to 5× cheaper than Sentry. For example, at 50M events per month, Sentry’s Team pricing lands around $6,441, while Bugsink is $1,288.
The practical result is simple: European hosting, Sentry SDK compatibility, and lower cost, without needing to run the system yourself.
Self-hosted
Bugsink can also be run entirely inside your own infrastructure. Self-hosting means the error data never leaves systems you operate yourself. For organizations with strict data handling rules, this can be the simplest answer.
Unlike many observability platforms, Bugsink is designed to run with minimal infrastructure:
- no Kafka
- no Redis
- no background job system required
In the simplest setup it runs as a single container. If you want to evaluate Bugsink locally, you can start a temporary instance with Docker:
docker pull bugsink/bugsink:latest docker run \ -e SECRET_KEY=TqfOuE2S7RAaqkKKWXZUtuwyQNZ74Mlr04wk08dqeXiO8Ca99J \ -e CREATE_SUPERUSER=admin:admin \ -e PORT=8000 \ -p 8000:8000 \ bugsink/bugsink
Visit http://localhost:8000/ to log in.
Full installation instructions are available in the documentation.
Migration from Sentry
Already using Sentry? You don’t need to change your application code.
Bugsink accepts standard Sentry SDK events, which means migration can be as simple as updating the DSN.
- Same client libraries
- Same event format
- Change the DSN and start sending errors elsewhere
This makes it possible to migrate incrementally or all at once.
Learn more
Learn more about Bugsink: