Scout, NewRelic and HoneyBadger are great tools to get started with. Their limitations are that they do what they do, how they think it should be done. If you need different metrics, another way to split up the data or correlate your mongo logs with app requests via NewRelic, you are out of luck.

This is when creating your own logs with exactly the data you needs becomes valuable, when you can measure what you need how you need.

My first post set the foundation for being able to easily get the right metrics and information by creating solid logs. It does not mean that this has to completely replace the aforementioned tools, on the contrary, it can supplement them to give you exactly the data you need when you need it.

stuff you need to pay for? There is surely a case for including some production logging in rails as default?