# Central Logging

> Self-hosted centralized logging, alerting, cron monitoring, and uptime checks for small teams. Central Logging is distributed as a single binary that serves an HTTPS web interface and API — deploy it on one of your own servers in under five minutes. Pay $187 once: no SaaS bills, no per-GB pricing, no Kubernetes, no vendor lock-in.

## About

- Central Logging aggregates logs from any source over an HTTP API or via the built-in CL Agent, and supports plain-text, JSON, gzip-compressed, and batch ingestion.
- Search logs with full SQL syntax or full-text search (FTS), including multi-source search, field extraction, saved queries, and CSV export.
- Built-in alerting (Slack/Telegram), website uptime monitoring, host monitoring, cron-job monitoring, and Prometheus metrics scraping — all in one binary.
- Targeted at small businesses and projects retaining less than a few terabytes of logs. No external dependencies or installer required.

## Documentation

- [Introduction](https://www.centrallogging.com/docs/introduction/): What Central Logging is, who it is for, and a feature overview.
- [Deploy](https://www.centrallogging.com/docs/deploy/): Copy the single binary to your server and run it — deploy in two steps.
- [Configuration](https://www.centrallogging.com/docs/configuration/): How to configure Central Logging.
- [Updating](https://www.centrallogging.com/docs/updating/): Update the single binary in place with the `-update` flag.
- [Sending Logs](https://www.centrallogging.com/docs/sending-logs/): Send application and server logs to the HTTP API, with cURL examples.
- [CL Agent](https://www.centrallogging.com/docs/cl-agent/): The built-in agent that periodically ships system and server logs upstream.
- [Querying Logs](https://www.centrallogging.com/docs/querying-logs/): Search logs with powerful SQL syntax or full-text search.
- [Useful Log Queries](https://www.centrallogging.com/docs/useful-log-queries/): A collection of ready-to-use queries to get started.
- [Alerting](https://www.centrallogging.com/docs/alerting/): Create alert rules with SQL or FTS queries and get notified via Slack or Telegram.
- [Website Monitoring](https://www.centrallogging.com/docs/website-monitoring/): Monitor uptime, response times, TLS certificate expiration, and keyword presence.
- [Host Monitoring](https://www.centrallogging.com/docs/host-monitoring/): Track server health with the CL Agent and get alerted when hosts stop checking in.
- [Cron Monitoring](https://www.centrallogging.com/docs/cron-monitoring/): Detect silent cron-job failures and get alerted when jobs fail or stop running.
- [Metrics](https://www.centrallogging.com/docs/metrics/): Scrape Prometheus endpoints and visualize counter and gauge metrics with built-in charts.
- [Release Notes](https://www.centrallogging.com/docs/release-notes/): Periodically updated notes on what has changed.

## Guides

- [Sending journalctl logs to a centralized logging system](https://www.centrallogging.com/guides/sending-journalctl-logs-to-centralized-logging-system/): Export structured systemd journal logs to Central Logging.
- [Sending Nginx logs to a central server](https://www.centrallogging.com/guides/sending-nginx-logs-to-a-central-server/): JSON `log_format`, syslog/journald forwarding, and SQL queries for access and error logs.
- [Sending Docker container logs to a central server](https://www.centrallogging.com/guides/sending-docker-container-logs-to-a-central-server/): Using the journald and syslog logging drivers, container tagging, and log rotation limits.
- [Sending rsyslog logs to a central server](https://www.centrallogging.com/guides/sending-rsyslog-logs-to-a-central-server/): Forward with the `omhttp` module, JSON templates, batching, and disk-assisted queues.
- [Sending PostgreSQL logs to a central server](https://www.centrallogging.com/guides/sending-postgresql-logs-to-a-central-server/): Enable `jsonlog` and slow-query logging, ship the files, and query by SQLSTATE.
- [Sending Python application logs to a central server](https://www.centrallogging.com/guides/sending-python-application-logs-to-a-central-server/): A JSON formatter and a non-blocking batching logging handler, with Django and Flask setup.
- [How to monitor cron jobs and get alerted when they fail](https://www.centrallogging.com/guides/how-to-monitor-cron-jobs-and-get-alerted-on-failure/): Heartbeat monitoring for cron and systemd timers, catching hung jobs and silent failures.

## Compare

- [A self-hosted Papertrail alternative](https://www.centrallogging.com/compare/papertrail-alternative/): Central Logging vs Papertrail — ownership vs rental, data residency, SQL search, and migration steps.
- [A cheaper self-hosted Datadog alternative for logging](https://www.centrallogging.com/compare/datadog-alternative/): Which slice of Datadog this replaces, why log bills grow, and when to stay on Datadog.
- [A lightweight Graylog alternative](https://www.centrallogging.com/compare/graylog-alternative/): One binary instead of Graylog plus OpenSearch plus MongoDB, and what you give up.
- [A simpler ELK stack alternative](https://www.centrallogging.com/compare/elk-stack-alternative/): Replacing Elasticsearch, Logstash and Kibana with a single binary, and migrating off grok.

## Blog

- [Introducing Central Logging](https://www.centrallogging.com/blog/introducing-central-logging/): Why Central Logging was built — affordable, low-maintenance logging without SaaS pricing or open-source complexity.

## Optional

- [Privacy Policy](https://www.centrallogging.com/privacy/)
- [Terms of Service](https://www.centrallogging.com/terms/)