Quick answer: Most indie games can start crash reporting for free: Sentry (5,000 errors a month), Backtrace (25,000), BugSplat (15,000), BugSnag (7,500) and Bugnet (100 reports in total) all have free tiers. Once a game launches, expect roughly $20 to $80 a month: Sentry Team is about $26, BugSplat Team $37, Bugnet Studio $19 and Studio Plus $79, while Backtrace's paid plan is priced per user per year. The model matters more than the sticker price, because per-event pricing grows with your player count and per-seat pricing grows with your team.
Crash reporting pricing pages are hard to compare: one counts errors per month, one counts users, one counts crashes and seats, one counts total reports. This guide puts them on the same footing for a typical indie game, shows how to estimate your own volume, and points out the costs that do not appear on the pricing page.
The short answer
- Before launch
- $0. Every tool here has a free tier that covers development and a small playtest.
- At launch
- About $20 to $80 a month for most indie games, depending on volume and team size.
- What drives the bill
- Events per month (Sentry, BugSnag), seats plus volume (Backtrace, BugSplat), or total reports (Bugnet).
- What is usually missing
- A bug tracker and a way for players to report bugs that do not crash, which you may pay for separately.
The four pricing models
- Per event (volume). You buy a monthly quota of errors and pay for overage. Sentry and BugSnag work this way. Cheap for small games, but a popular launch or one noisy error can push you into a higher tier.
- Seats plus volume. Plans bundle a number of users with a monthly crash allowance. BugSplat's tiers and Backtrace's per-user pricing work this way. Predictable for a solo developer, more expensive as the team grows.
- Free with conditions. Firebase Crashlytics costs nothing, but its Unity support is built for Android and iOS, and desktop builds are supported for development only.
- Flat tiers by total reports. Bugnet charges per plan, with no per-seat or per-event fees: Free covers 1 project and up to 100 reports, Studio covers 5 projects and up to 10,000 reports, and Studio Plus is unlimited. The limits are totals for the account, not monthly allowances.
Price comparison
| Tool | Free tier | First paid tier | What you pay for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bugnet | 1 project, up to 100 reports, 2 members | Studio $19/mo ($15 billed annually): 5 projects, up to 10,000 reports, 20 members. Studio Plus $79/mo: unlimited | Plan tier; includes the bug tracker, in-game widget and store reviews |
| Sentry | 1 user, 5,000 errors/mo | Team about $26/mo billed annually: 50,000 errors/mo, unlimited users | Monthly event volume, plus pay-as-you-go overage |
| Backtrace | 1 developer, 25,000 errors/mo, 1-month retention | Standard from $600 per user per year, rising with error volume | Users and volume |
| BugSplat | 3 users, 15,000 crashes/mo, 1-month retention | Team $37/mo billed annually: 10 users, 25,000 crashes/mo | Users and monthly crashes |
| BugSnag | 1 user, 7,500 events | Consumption-based | Event volume |
| Crashlytics | Free | None | Nothing, but mobile-focused |
Prices are list prices in USD as of October 2026; check each vendor's page before you buy.
Estimate your crash volume
Volume-based plans are only expensive if your volume is high, so estimate it before choosing:
monthly crash events ≈ daily players × sessions per player per day × crash rate × 30A game with 2,000 daily players, 1.5 sessions each and a 2% crash rate sends about 1,800 crash events a month. That fits every free tier above except Bugnet's, which is sized for setting up and testing rather than running a launched game. Two things change the picture:
- Errors outnumber crashes. Non-fatal errors and exceptions are often ten or more times as frequent as crashes, and one error that fires every frame can burn a monthly quota in an afternoon. Bugnet's SDKs drop repeats of the same error on the player's machine (once per session in Unity, Unreal and the web SDK, at most every 30 seconds in Godot and Pygame), which keeps this in check.
- Launch spikes. Day-one player counts can be many times your steady state, and so can the bugs. Volume plans charge for that spike; flat plans do not.
Costs that are not on the pricing page
- Seats. Per-user pricing means every artist or community manager who needs to see a crash costs money.
- Retention. Free tiers often keep data for a month or less, which is not long enough to compare this patch with the last one.
- The rest of the workflow. A crash reporter alone does not give players a report button, track bugs that do not crash, or show your Steam reviews. If you add a bug tracker and a feedback tool, add their prices too.
- Your time. Setup, symbol uploads and a weekly triage session cost more than most subscriptions. Prefer the tool your team will actually open.
What to pick at each stage
- Prototype or game jam: any free tier. Bugnet's free plan is enough to set up crash capture and the in-game report widget and test them end to end.
- Playtest or demo: a free volume tier, or Bugnet Studio if you also want players to file their own reports into the same tracker.
- Commercial launch: compare a volume plan (Sentry Team, BugSplat Team) plus a separate tracker against Bugnet Studio Plus, which has no report, seat or event caps.
For a deeper look at one vendor, see Sentry pricing for game studios. To compare tools by features rather than price, see the best crash reporting tools for game developers. Create a free Bugnet project to try crash reporting and player reports together.
Frequently asked questions
How much does crash reporting cost for an indie game?
Nothing during development, because Sentry, Backtrace, BugSplat, BugSnag and Bugnet all have free tiers. After launch, most indie games pay about $20 to $80 a month, depending on crash volume and team size.
Is there a free crash reporting tool for games?
Yes. Firebase Crashlytics is free but mobile-focused, and Sentry, Backtrace, BugSplat and BugSnag have free tiers with monthly limits. Bugnet's free plan covers one project and up to 100 reports, which is enough to set up and test it.
How many crash reports will my game send?
Roughly daily players times sessions per player times crash rate times 30. A game with 2,000 daily players, 1.5 sessions each and a 2% crash rate sends about 1,800 crash events a month, before counting non-fatal errors.
Are Bugnet's report limits monthly?
No. Bugnet's report and upload limits are totals for the account, not monthly allowances. Studio Plus has no report limit.
Which pricing model is best for a small team?
If your volume is low and stable, a per-event plan is cheapest. If your volume is spiky or your team includes non-engineers, flat plans without per-seat or per-event fees are easier to budget.
Estimate your crash volume before you compare prices. It decides which pricing model is cheap for you.