Quick answer
Embrace - For most builders, Embrace wins on the free tier because it gives a much larger usable cap with 1 million sessions per year and up to 5 users, while Sentry’s free plan is mainly a single-user starter.
How the free tiers compare
These free tiers solve slightly different problems. Embrace is the better fit if you want a shared observability workspace for a small team and you care about session volume, retention, dashboards, and alerting without hitting the wall immediately. Its free plan is capped, but the cap is generous enough to support real use by multiple people. Sentry’s free tier is narrower: it gives one user access to error monitoring, tracing, alerts, and dashboards, which is enough for an individual developer or a very early project, but it pushes teams into paid territory faster. The paid paths also differ. Embrace starts with usage-based pricing tied to sessions and a higher minimum spend, while Sentry moves into a per-seat Team plan and then a flat Business tier. If you are choosing strictly on free-tier usefulness for a small builder team, Embrace is the broader entry point.
Embrace vs Sentry free tier, side by side
| EmbraceFTV 62 | SentryFTV 48 | |
|---|---|---|
| Free usersEmbrace is better for small teams; Sentry is single-user on the free tier. | Up to 5 users | One user account included |
| Usage capSentry’s provided free-tier details do not include a session quota. | Up to 1 million sessions per year | Not stated in the free tier items |
| Events data retentionEmbrace includes short retention on the free plan. | 3 days | Not stated in the free tier items |
| Core monitoringBoth cover the basics, but Embrace adds broader mobile/web observability elements. | Errors, exceptions, crashes, basic performance monitoring | Error Monitoring and Tracing |
| DashboardsSentry gives more dashboards on free, but only for one user. | Basic dashboards | 10 custom dashboards |
| AlertsBoth include alerting, with different emphasis. | Basic alerting | Email alerts and notifications |
After you outgrow the free tier
Embrace’s first paid plan is usage-based at $0.80 per 1,000 sessions with an $80/month minimum, then Enterprise is custom. Sentry’s first paid plan is Team at $26/mo, followed by Business at $80/mo and then custom Enterprise. For small teams, Sentry is cheaper to start paying because the entry price is lower and predictable. Embrace’s cost scales with sessions, so it can stay efficient at moderate volume but rises as usage grows. We only have exact pricing for the included tiers, so usage scenarios beyond the plan minimums are not fully computable from the provided data.
Cost at real usage
| Usage | Embrace | Sentry |
|---|---|---|
| 10 users, low session volumeEmbrace’s minimum spend applies; Sentry’s Team plan starts lower. | $80/mo minimum | $26/mo |
| 5 users, 100k sessions/moEmbrace would still be at its minimum spend at this level based on the provided plan details. | $80/mo minimum | $26/mo |
| 5 users, 1M sessions/moEstimated from Embrace’s stated $0.80 per 1,000 sessions rate; Sentry’s provided pricing does not include session-based overage math. | $800/mo est. | $26/mo |
Estimates, not quotes. Usage-based rates change - verify with the vendor's pricing page before committing.
When to pick each one
Pick Embrace when…
- You need a free observability tool for a small team, not just a solo account.
- You expect to stay under 1 million sessions per year but still want shared access for up to 5 users.
- You care more about session-based monitoring and retention than about code-centric developer workflow features.
- You want basic dashboards and alerting included before paying.
- You want to delay paid spend until you have real team usage or higher session volume.
Pick Sentry when…
- You are a solo developer and only need one account for error monitoring and tracing.
- You want to start with a developer-focused workflow around issues, tracing, and release context.
- You expect to add teammates soon and are comfortable moving to a paid seat-based plan.
- You want third-party integrations or more dashboards, which are clearly part of the paid Team tier.
- You prefer a product whose paid path is easy to understand as per-seat or flat monthly pricing.
Bottom line
If you want the better free tier for a small builder team, Embrace is the winner because it supports more people and a much larger session cap before you pay. If you are solo or mainly need a developer-centric error monitoring tool, Sentry is the simpler free starting point. The main tradeoff is breadth versus simplicity: Embrace gives more room to use the free tier as a shared observability workspace, while Sentry gets you into a paid plan faster but with a lower, clearer starting price.
Read the full listings: Embrace and Sentry. Scores use the FTV methodology at /ftv. Browse more head-to-heads on /compare, or see the top-ranked free tiers on /top.