best observability tools for elixir applications

elixir on the BEAM is a different kind of beast. Lightweight processes, actor-based concurrency, and hot code swapping make it incredibly resilient — but they also make traditional monitoring approaches fall flat. You can't just slap a generic APM agent on a Phoenix app and call it a day.

the BEAM's process model means thousands (or millions) of concurrent processes, each with its own state and lifecycle. Standard tools that assume a thread-per-request model miss the full picture. What you need is observability built for the BEAM: deep process-level tracing, native Erlang Term Format (ETF) support, and first-class OpenTelemetry instrumentation.

here are the tools that actually deliver.

1. datadog — the full-stack standard

best for: teams that want one platform for metrics, traces, logs, and infrastructure

datadog has become the default choice for observability at scale, and for good reason. it offers distributed tracing that understands the BEAM's process model, native agents for Elixir and Erlang, and deep Phoenix framework integration.1

what sets datadog apart is its breadth. you get APM, log management, infrastructure monitoring, synthetic checks, and real user monitoring in a single pane of glass. for elixir teams running distributed nodes, the service map automatically discovers how your services connect — even across BEAM nodes.

the OpenTelemetry collector integration means you can export traces and metrics from your Elixir app without vendor lock-in. datadog's agent also understands Erlang's built-in distribution protocol, giving you visibility into inter-node communication.

the trade-off: it's expensive at scale, and the learning curve is real. but if you need one tool that covers everything, this is it.

→ explore datadog

2. new relic — unified logs and APM

best for: teams that want integrated log-APM correlation without managing infrastructure

new relic takes a different approach: instead of separate products for logs, metrics, and traces, it unifies everything into a single data platform. for elixir developers, this means you can jump from a slow endpoint trace directly into the relevant log lines without switching contexts.2

the elixir agent supports OpenTelemetry natively, so you can instrument your GenServers, supervisors, and Phoenix channels with standard OTel SDKs. new relic's log management ingests structured logs from Elixir's Logger and correlates them with APM traces automatically.

where new relic shines is reducing MTTR (mean time to resolution). when a GenServer crashes or a process mailbox grows unexpectedly, you can trace the root cause from error → trace → log in one flow.

the trade-off: the unified data model is powerful but can feel opinionated. if you need raw log querying with full control, you might miss a dedicated log tool.

→ explore new relic

3. bugsnag — error tracking with stability focus

best for: teams that prioritize stability scores and actionable error prioritization

bugsnag isn't a full observability platform — it's laser-focused on one thing: error monitoring. and for elixir applications, that focus pays off. bugsnag's elixir library hooks into the BEAM's error handling at the process level, catching crashes and exits that generic error trackers miss.3

the stability score is the killer feature. bugsnag calculates a per-release stability metric based on the percentage of error-free sessions. this gives you a clear, data-driven answer to "should we roll back this deploy?" — something that's surprisingly hard to get from raw error counts.

for phoenix apps, bugsnag captures HTTP context automatically: request params, session data, and the user affected. it also surfaces the most impactful bugs first, so you're not drowning in noise from a single noisy process.

the trade-off: it's error tracking only — you'll still need a separate APM or logging tool for performance monitoring. but as a complement to datadog or new relic, it's excellent.

→ explore bugsnag

4. splunk — high-performance log aggregation

best for: high-throughput BEAM applications that need real-time log analytics

splunk brings enterprise-grade log aggregation to the BEAM. for elixir apps handling millions of events per second — think IoT, real-time messaging, or financial systems — splunk's indexing engine keeps up without dropping data.4

the key advantage is search speed. splunk indexes logs at ingestion time, so queries against terabytes of BEAM process logs return in seconds. it also supports structured JSON logging from Elixir's Logger out of the box, with automatic field extraction for process IDs, node names, and GenServer state.

splunk's dashboards and alerting let you monitor process health across your entire cluster, with alerts that trigger when process mailbox sizes exceed thresholds or when supervisor restarts spike.

the trade-off: splunk is the most expensive option here, and it's overkill for smaller deployments. but for high-throughput systems where log volume is a real problem, nothing else comes close.

→ explore splunk

how to choose

all four tools support OpenTelemetry, which means you can start with one and switch later without re-instrumenting your code. that's the beauty of the OTel ecosystem — your instrumentation is portable.

start with the tool that matches your biggest pain point today. for most elixir teams, that's either datadog for full coverage or bugsnag paired with a lighter logging solution. either way, the BEAM deserves observability that understands how it works.

disclosure: askbuy earns affiliate commissions if you purchase through the links above. we only recommend tools we've evaluated and believe deliver real value for elixir developers.