Logback VS SLF4J

Compare Logback vs SLF4J and see what are their differences.

Logback

The reliable, generic, fast and flexible logging framework for Java. (by qos-ch)

SLF4J

Simple Logging Facade for Java (by qos-ch)
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Logback SLF4J
19 23
2,882 2,246
1.1% 1.4%
8.7 7.8
2 days ago 5 days ago
Java Java
GNU General Public License v3.0 or later MIT License
The number of mentions indicates the total number of mentions that we've tracked plus the number of user suggested alternatives.
Stars - the number of stars that a project has on GitHub. Growth - month over month growth in stars.
Activity is a relative number indicating how actively a project is being developed. Recent commits have higher weight than older ones.
For example, an activity of 9.0 indicates that a project is amongst the top 10% of the most actively developed projects that we are tracking.

Logback

Posts with mentions or reviews of Logback. We have used some of these posts to build our list of alternatives and similar projects. The last one was on 2023-02-22.
  • Logging in your API
    13 projects | dev.to | 22 Feb 2023
    Java -> Logback, Log4j2, JDK (Java Util Logging), Slf4j, e.t.c.
  • Spring Boot logging with Loki, Promtail, and Grafana (Loki stack)
    5 projects | dev.to | 6 Jan 2023
    This is a GitHub link to my demo app. It’s simple Spring Boot web app used to debugging various stuff. There are many ways to configure JSON logging in Spring Boot. I decided to use Logback because it is easy to configure and one of the most widely used logging library in the Java Community. To enable JSON logging we need to add below dependencies.
  • 5 Best Logging Solutions for Java
    2 projects | dev.to | 5 Oct 2022
    Logback(https://logback.qos.ch/) is another non-commercial Java logging framework. It labels itself as a successor to the previously discussed Log4j framework.
  • Log4j: The Pain Just Keeps Going and Going
    8 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 20 Jul 2022
    > Then apache decides to put new people on log4j, do a backward incompatible v2 design that nevertheless is worse than slf4j. Why?

    slf4j itself isn't a logging framework. It's a facade to logging frameworks.

    Simple Logging Facade for Java ( https://www.slf4j.org )

    It needs a logging framework behind it - log4j, log4j2, logback, commons, JUL.

    The question is "why do log4j2?"

    Logback went from the log4j1.x path ( https://logback.qos.ch )

    Log4j2 has a lot of features that weren't present when the project started ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Log4j#Apache_Log4j_2 ).

    There is a licensing difference between Logback (LGPL) and Log4jx (Apache Commons).

  • E2E-Testing in CI Environment With Testcontainers
    3 projects | dev.to | 21 Jun 2022
    Also, I'd like you to pay attention to the log consumer. You see, when the E2E scenario fails, it's not always obvious why. Sometimes to understand the source of the problem you have to dig into containers' logs. Thankfully the log consumer allows us to forward a container's logs to any SLF4J logger instance. In this project, containers' logs are forwarded to regular text files (you can find the Logback configuration in the repository). Though it's much better to transfer logs to external logging facility (e.g. Kibana).
  • 🛡️ This is how we maintain & release Secured Software on Github 🤖
    6 projects | dev.to | 9 May 2022
  • How to Check if a Java Project Depends on A Vulnerable Version of Log4j
    8 projects | dev.to | 20 Dec 2021
    This shows that the MariaDB JDBC driver uses Logback as a logging framework. Although Logback is not affected by Log4Shell, it has a related vulnerability (of much lesser severity, no need to panic) fixed in version 1.2.8 and 1.3.0-alpha11. I checked the version used by the connector and found that it used 1.3.0-alpha10. Even though Logback is included as a test dependency in the MariaDB driver, I sent a pull request on GitHub to update it. I encourage you to do the same in any open-source project you find and that includes a vulnerable dependency.
  • Migrating off of Log4j 2.x
    3 projects | dev.to | 19 Dec 2021
    Dependencing on the project, changing the logger might range from easy peasy to a multi-week task. I'm ready to bet that in many (most?) cases, it'd actually be quite easy, so let's explore how to do it, using Logback as the target (there aren't that many alternatives actually).
  • Serious flaw in Java log4j has been discovered, affecting large number of devices. [weekly tech news]
    2 projects | dev.to | 14 Dec 2021
    Logback
  • RCE 0-day exploit found in log4j, a popular Java logging package
    9 projects | /r/programming | 9 Dec 2021
    Also https://github.com/qos-ch/logback/commit/b810c115e363081afc70f8bf4ee535318c3a34e1

SLF4J

Posts with mentions or reviews of SLF4J. We have used some of these posts to build our list of alternatives and similar projects. The last one was on 2023-04-21.
  • dazl — a facade for configurable/pluggable Go logging
    2 projects | /r/golang | 21 Apr 2023
    A few years ago, my team moved from Java to Go. Working on Go projects, we encountered a wide variety of logging frameworks with different APIs, configuration, and formatting. We soon found ourselves longing for a logging abstraction layer like Java’s slf4j, which had proven invaluable for use in reusable libraries or configuring and debugging production systems. So, not long after moving to Go, we began working toward replacing what we had lost in slf4j.
  • Fargate logging thru console awslogs or directly to Cloudwatch?
    2 projects | /r/aws | 7 Apr 2023
    I'm not familiar with Serilog as I code mostly in Java, use slf4j (logs to stdout) and our apps send logs to Cloudwatch using the task definition's awslogs configuration. I prefer it this way because I can customize the log configurations in my task definitions. Also the default stream name has this format prefix-name/container-name/ecs-task-id so I can easily identify the logs of the task I want to look at. I haven't experienced any downsides with this approach and our apps publish a shit ton of logs. Cloudwatch approach looks like you can customize the stream name?
  • Logging in your API
    13 projects | dev.to | 22 Feb 2023
    Java -> Logback, Log4j2, JDK (Java Util Logging), Slf4j, e.t.c.
  • Primeiros passos no desenvolvimento Java em 2023: um guia particular
    13 projects | dev.to | 19 Jan 2023
    slf4j para padronização dos logs;
  • What are some of the biggest problems you personally face in Java?
    6 projects | /r/java | 27 Dec 2022
  • must known frameworks/libs/tech, every senior java developer must know(?)
    6 projects | /r/java | 9 Dec 2022
    SLF4J
  • Go standard library: structured, leveled logging
    11 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 11 Sep 2022
    > My God. Logging in protobuf?

    Yes, or any other data format and/or transport protocol.

    I'm surprised this is up for debate.

    > Logging is the lowest of all debugging utilities - its the first thing you ever do writing software - “hello world”. And, while I admire structural logging, the truth is printing strings remains (truly) the lowest common denominator across software developers.

    This sort of comment is terribly miopic. You can have a logging API, and then configure your logging to transport the events anywhere, any way. This is a terribly basic feature and requirement, and one that comes out of the box with some systems. Check how SLF4J[1] is pervasive in Java, and how any SLF4J implementation offers logging to stdout or a local file as a very specific and basic usecase.

    It turns out that nowadays most developers write software that runs on many computers that aren't stashed over or under their desks, and thus they need efficient and convenient ways to check what's happening either in a node or in all deployments.

    [1] https://www.slf4j.org/

  • Log4j: The Pain Just Keeps Going and Going
    8 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 20 Jul 2022
    > Then apache decides to put new people on log4j, do a backward incompatible v2 design that nevertheless is worse than slf4j. Why?

    slf4j itself isn't a logging framework. It's a facade to logging frameworks.

    Simple Logging Facade for Java ( https://www.slf4j.org )

    It needs a logging framework behind it - log4j, log4j2, logback, commons, JUL.

    The question is "why do log4j2?"

    Logback went from the log4j1.x path ( https://logback.qos.ch )

    Log4j2 has a lot of features that weren't present when the project started ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Log4j#Apache_Log4j_2 ).

    There is a licensing difference between Logback (LGPL) and Log4jx (Apache Commons).

  • Logger Dependency Injection
    2 projects | /r/golang | 13 Jul 2022
    I think the Go designers were seeing the mess in other platforms (e.g. Java's SLF4J) and just decided not to play that game from the start. I'm sure it was intentional that Go logging is not a pluggable API. I like that Go is opinionated, but there are some opinions I disagree with. This particular opinion was defeatist and guaranteed a mess rather than make even a small effort to make life easier for some if not all. END RANT.
  • E2E-Testing in CI Environment With Testcontainers
    3 projects | dev.to | 21 Jun 2022
    Also, I'd like you to pay attention to the log consumer. You see, when the E2E scenario fails, it's not always obvious why. Sometimes to understand the source of the problem you have to dig into containers' logs. Thankfully the log consumer allows us to forward a container's logs to any SLF4J logger instance. In this project, containers' logs are forwarded to regular text files (you can find the Logback configuration in the repository). Though it's much better to transfer logs to external logging facility (e.g. Kibana).

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Logback and SLF4J you can also consider the following projects:

Apache Log4j 2 - Apache Log4j 2 is a versatile, feature-rich, efficient logging API and backend for Java.

Logbook - An extensible Java library for HTTP request and response logging

Logstash - Logstash - transport and process your logs, events, or other data

tinylog - tinylog is a lightweight logging framework for Java, Kotlin, Scala, and Android

kibana - Your window into the Elastic Stack

graylog - Free and open log management

FizzBuzz Enterprise Edition - FizzBuzz Enterprise Edition is a no-nonsense implementation of FizzBuzz made by serious businessmen for serious business purposes.