14 best Java Logging libraries in 2024

Java Logging libraries help debug and troubleshoot the application in the production environment. It allows users to debug the code and analyze the results depending on the logs collected during runtime. The requirement for logging has increased in recent years because of the application complexity being developed because of the demand from auditors and customers for detailed information about the happenings of the system.  

The Java Logging libraries help monitor, debug, and analyze application behaviour. It is a library used for writing log messages. It offers a simple API that can be used for logging messages on various levels. It offers various logging levels like debug, warns, fatal, error, and info for categorizing the importance of log messages. It allows developers to filter log messages depending on their source, severity, and other criteria to make finding the information they require easier.   

Here is the list of the 14 best Java Logging libraries that are handpicked to help developers: 

logger: 

• Is a software library that offers functionalities for logging messages and events within an application.  
• Offers a set of methods and classes which allow the developers to log information about the behavior and state of the application and any exceptions or errors to occur. 
• Can configure the logger for controlling the level of logging, the destination of the log output, and the format of the log messages.  

graylog2-server: 

• Is an open source log management tool that will allow developers to collect, process, and analyze log data from different sources in real time.  
• Offers a web-based interface for configuring and managing the logging pipeline.  
• Allows developers to collect log data from different sources like applications, network devices, and servers and store it in a centralized location for troubleshooting and easy analysis.   

logging-log4j2: 

• Is a Java-based logging utility library used for logging messages from a Java application.  
• Is designed to produce minimal garbage during logging, which reduces the impact on the application’s memory usage.  
• Can be customized to include contextual information like the application name, log level, and thread name. 

xLog: 

• Is an open source library that offers a simple and efficient way to log events in Android apps.  
• Supports customizable log levels allowing developers to filter log events depending on their importance and severity.  
• Is designed to be thread-safe, which means multiple threads can log events without interfering with each other.   

p6spy: 

• Is a Java library that offers a proxy driver between the actual JDBC driver and the application.  
• Allows to intercept and log all the SQL statement and their parameters to the database.   
• Can log the performance statistics and execution time of every SQL statement, which can help identify inefficient database access patterns and slow queries. 

gpslogger: 

• Allows users to record their speed, altitude, and location in real time and store it locally on the device or remotely on a cloud-based service. 
• Allows users to customize the logging interval for GPS data that can help converse storage space and battery life. 
• Supports various logging modes like time-based, manual, and distance-based logging, offering users flexibility in logging their GPS data. 

log-synth: 

• Is a logging library for Java which offers a simple way to log events in your application that allows easy monitoring and troubleshooting.  
• Supports different logging levels, which will allow you to control the amount of detail that is logged.  
• Allows you to configure logging to output for multiple destinations like a remote server or files. 

Chronicle-Logger: 

• Is a Java logging library designed for low latency and high-performance logging. 
• Offers a simple and flexible API for logging, allowing developers to log messages at various severity levels like warning, error, debug, and info.  
• Can achieve this by using off-heap memory for storing log messages, which reduces the garbage collection overhead and improves performance. 

nRF-Logger-API: 

• Is a software library designed for use with Nordic Semiconductor’s nRF53 and nRF52 series of microcontrollers.  
• Supports multiple log levels, allowing developers to filter log output based on severity easily.  
• Is available under the BSD 3-Clause license, a permissive open source license that allows for both non-commercial and commercial use of the software.   

fluent-logger-java: 

• Is a Java library for logging events to Fluentd, a popular open source data collector. 
• Offers a simple interface for Java applications to send log events to a Fluentd server which can then route the events to different destinations like Hadoop, Elasticsearch, or other processing or storage systems. 
• Supports UDP and TCP protocols for communicating with the Fluentd servers. 

Sensor-Data-Logger: 

• Is a software tool designed to facilitate data logging from sensors in embedded systems. 
• Is typically used in applications where a microcontroller is used for acquiring sensor data and storing it in some form of non-volatile memory. 
• Offers a set of functions that can be used for configuring the logging parameters, like the number of samples to be acquired, the format of the data to be logged, and the sampling frequency. 

ecs-logging-java: 

• Is a software tool designed for facilitating logging in Java applications using the Elastic Common Schema. 
• Is a specification for structured logging which offers a standardized method for defining and organizing log events. 
• Offers a set of functions that can be used for creating ECS-compliant log events in Java applications. 

commons-logging: 

• A Java-based logging framework offers a simple and consistent interface for logging across different Java-based applications.  
• Offers a set of standard logging levels like INFO, ERROR, DEBUG, FATAL, and WARN, which can be used for log messages with varying degrees of importance.  
• Supports message parameterization and localization, allowing for more expressive and flexible log messages. 

owasp-security-logging: 

• Is a Java-based logging framework specifically designed to improve the security of Java-based applications by offering various security-focused logging features.   
• Includes logging of events like cross-site scripting, SQL injection attacks, and failed login attempts.  
• Offers built-in support for OWASP's top 10 security risks like broken authentication and session management, injection attacks, cross-site scripting, and many more.