Best Tools for Debugging Modern Web Apps (Next.js, Logs, and Beyond)

#nextjs #react #monitoring #webdev

Debugging a modern web app is rarely as simple as checking your browser console.
When you’re building with frameworks like Next.js, your app often relies on multiple external services: Stripe for payments, AWS Lambda for serverless functions, Sentry for error tracking, Google Cloud for infra, etc.

When something breaks, the logs are spread across 5 different dashboards. You end up context-switching more than actually fixing the bug.

Over the past few years, I’ve tried countless ways to improve debugging speed. Here are some of the best tools and approaches that actually help.

1. Sentry — Error tracking made simple

Sentry is still one of the best tools for catching runtime errors in production. With Next.js integration, you can quickly capture exceptions from both frontend and API routes.

✅ Features I love:

Automatic stack traces
Source maps for Next.js builds
Alerts on new issues
But Sentry alone doesn’t give you the full story — just the exception.

2. AWS CloudWatch (or GCP Logging) — Serverless debugging

If you’re deploying Next.js with serverless functions (e.g., on Vercel, AWS Lambda, or Cloud Run), logs often end up in CloudWatch or Google Cloud Logging.

✅ Useful for:

Seeing console.log output from API routes
Tracing performance bottlenecks in functions
The downside: the UI isn’t developer-friendly, and you still have to keep another tab open.

Stripe Dashboard Logs — Payments debugging If you use Stripe webhooks in your Next.js app, debugging failed events is a constant struggle. You check the Stripe logs, then jump to your function logs, then maybe check Sentry.

Stripe’s dashboard is great, but again — it’s one more tool to keep open.

4. Chrome extension

Here’s where I tried something different. Instead of switching between dashboards, I built a small chrome extension that unifies all these logs into one place.

Imagine this:

You run your Next.js app locally.
Inside your own admin panel or dev tools, you drop in

npm install @benchwrk/logger

import { Logger } from "@benchwrk/logger";

// Initialize logger with your API key
const logger = new Logger({ apiKey: "12345" });

// Log messages with different levels
logger.info("User logged in successfully", { userId: 123 });

Suddenly you see Stripe events, CloudWatch logs, and Sentry errors streaming in real time — in a single UI.
✅ Benefits: