This weekend I did some fairly extensive research on different quality tracking/crash reporting services available for mobile applications. Since I'm a iOS developer, I mainly focussed on this platform. Yet, for Android developers this post can be handy too although I believe crash reports handling is much better on the Android platform compared to Apple (iTunes Connect). I tested the following services: iTunes Connect (https://itunesconnect.apple.com) BugSense (http://www.bugsense.com) Crittercism (http://www.crittercism.com) Crashlytics (http://try.crashlytics.com) (not tested it as I'm still on their invitation list) HockeyApp (http://www.hockeyapp.net) Apphance (http://www.apphance.com) TestFlight (https://testflightapp.com)

1. Quality Tracking/Crash reporters
for Mobile Apps
Niels Mouthaan, October 13th, 2012
http://nielsmouthaan.nl/quality-trackingcrash-reporters-
for-mobile-apps

2. SaaS solutions
 iTunes Connect (https://itunesconnect.apple.com)
 BugSense (http://www.bugsense.com)
 Crittercism (http://www.crittercism.com)
 Crashlytics (http://try.crashlytics.com)
 HockeyApp (http://www.hockeyapp.net)
 TestFlight (https://testflightapp.com)
 Apphance (http://www.apphance.com)

3. iTunes Connect
 Default crash reporting service provided by Apple
 Pricing: free (included in the iOS developer account)
 Pros:
 No need to install separate library
 No need to create separate account elsewhere
 Cons:
 Never seen a crash log appearing for any of our apps (e.g.
HockeyApp detects 20 times more crashes than iTunes Connect)
 Only sends crash logs if user agreed at the first setup of their
device to send anonymous data to Apple
 No server symbolication provided
 Does not show all crash logs (only top 5 is provided)

4. BugSense
 Crash reporting service founded in 2011 located in CA
 Platforms: iOS, Android (1.5+) & WP7
 Pricing: $99/month (up to 100k errors/month)
 Pros:
 Server symbolication (dSYM for iOS, supports Proguard for
Android)
 Libraries are open-source (https://github.com/bugsense)
 Crash fixed notification (prevents 1-star ratings)
 Good UI (e.g. sorting, filtering, graphs)
 Notifications per email when crash occurs
 Cons:
 Does not ask the user to send its crash logs
 No end-user communication (e.g. feedback forum)

5. Crittercism
 Crash reporting service founded in 2010 in SA, funded by 5
VC’s ($5.5m in total). More than 4.5b app loads.
 Platforms: iOS and Android (HTML5, WP7 & BB are in beta)
 Pricing: $24/month per 100k monthly active users
 Pros:
 Server symbolication (dSYM for iOS, supports Proguard for Android)
 Notifications via email
 Libraries are open-source (https://github.com/crittercism)
 Breadcrumbs (checkpoints, enterprise account is needed)
 End-user communication (rate my app, notification if crash is due old
version)
 In-App Feedback Forum (handy for beta testing)
 Excellent & initiative UI (e.g. crash sorting & crash info.)
 Cons:
 Does not ask the user to send its crash logs

6. Crashlytics
 Crash reporting service founded in 2011 (Cambridge, US)
 Platforms: iOS and Android
 Pricing: freemium (no details available)
 No public access yet, have not tried it (I’m on their invitation list)
 Pros:
 Server symbolication
 More advanced reporting & crash log analysis (not just the stack
trace)
 Remote logging
 Comprehensive information about the state of the device (type,
battery status, location, orientation, etc.)
 Offers a Mac OS X Desktop application
 Supports user notification when sending crash log
 Integration with multiple issue management systems (JIRA 5, etc.)
 Cons:
 Still in beta but production ready

7. HockeyApp
 Crash reporting service and beta distribution founded in 2011 and
located in Germany
 Platforms: iOS, Android & Windows Phone
 Pricing: $79 (100 apps, 10GB storage & 5 managers)
 Pros:
 Server symbolication (dSYM for iOS, supports Proguard for Android)
 Notifications via email
 Libraries are open-source (see QuincyKit and HockeyKit)
 Asks the user to send crash logs (can be configured to automatic send logs)
 Issue status management (mark an issue as closed, open, etc.)
 Integration with external issue trackers (JIRA, Mantis, etc.)
 Extensive & detailed crash reports
 Easy app & dSYM file upload via Mac OS X Desktop utility
 Cons:
 No end-user communication (e.g. feedback forum)
 No graphs illustrating crash history

8. TestFlight
 Crash reporting service, beta distribution & app statistics provider
founded in 2011 and located in CA
 Platforms: iOS
 Pricing: free (premium plans in the future)
 Pros:
 Server symbolication (dSYM)
 Notifications via email
 Checkpoints, remote logging
 Easy app & dSYM file upload via Mac OS X Desktop utility (better than
HockeyApp)
 TestFlight Live gives a nice overview of the app’s usage
 Cons:
 Portal can be slow sometimes
 Crash logs sorting & filtering is not efficient
 Does not ask the user to send its crash logs
 In the past, we had crashes due issues in their SDK
 Sometimes crashes and usage info do not appear in their portal

9. Apphance
 Crash reporting service & beta distribution as part of uTest
(world's largest marketplace for software testing services)
 Platforms: iOS, Android & Windows Phone
 Pricing: free in 2012 (expensive premium plans following)
 Pros:
 Server symbolication (not tested, see below)
 In-app bug reporting and in-app user feedback
 Remote logging
 Cons:
 Plans are expensive compared to competitors
 No desktop utility available (IPA upload via site)
 Service feels and looks a bit too new for production (I could not test
this service due installation errors… I tried installing via iTunes and
via their website).

10. Other solutions
 PLCrashReporter (http://code.google.com/p/plcrashreporter/)
 QuincyKit (http://github.com/TheRealKerni/QuincyKit) &
HockeyKit (http://hockeykit.net)
 CrashReporter
(https://github.com/amazingsyco/CrashReporter)
 Airbrake (http://airbrake.io)

11. PLCrashReporter
 Open source iOS & Mac crash handler
 Used by different solutions (HockeyApp, BugSense, etc.)
 No armv7s (iPhone 5) support in the current codebase
 No server integration provided (QuickyKit offers a
comprehensive solution)

12. QuincyKit
 Comprehensive solution
 iOS library
 Server application including web application
 Needs maintenance and no support is offered
 Mac OS X is needed for symbolication
 Based on PLCrashReporter
 Still being maintained (armv7s/iPhone 5 support)
 Open source/free
 Supports push notifications
 Can be used together with/is part of HockeyKit: a self-hosted
over-the-air beta distribution system

13. CrashReporter
 iOS only
 Sends crash reports via email (no server needed)
 Outdated (2 years old, probably no armv7s (iPhone 5)
support

14. Airbrake
 Haven’t test it myself
 Expensive
 No server symbolication
 Does not work with App Store apps (Ad Hoc and beta only)
 Possibility to host Airbrake in your own datacenter

15. (extra information)
 http://www.jeremyfuller.net/2011/06/the-battle-of-the-ios-
crash-reporters/
 http://www.jeremyfuller.net/2012/09/hockeyapp-still-the-best-
thing-since-sliced-pizza/
 http://support.hockeyapp.net/discussions/questions/206-why-
hockey-over-testflight
 http://digitalflapjack.com/blog/2012/jun/19/hockeyapp