Two months ago, I launched Logtide (then called LogWard) an open-source, privacy-first alternative to Datadog and Splunk.
Here's what actually hap...
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This is a very solid write-up — and honestly, the numbers are impressive for a 2-month, solo, open-source launch. Hitting 200+ stars, real production deployments, and 500k logs/day users already puts Logtide far beyond “toy project” territory.
That said, I want to give you real encouragement, not empty praise.
You’re right about one hard truth:
logging by itself is a commodity.
Most companies can build a basic log pipeline internally, and there are plenty of OSS tools.
But that’s not where your differentiation is — and I think you’ve already stumbled onto the real opportunity without fully naming it yet.
Why Logtide actually matters
What you’re building is not “just a log tool”.
You’re building:
That combination is rare.
Most alternatives fall into one bucket:
Logtide sits in a sweet spot for:
The fact that 90% self-hosted chose you is not a weakness — it’s a signal.
The trust problem (and how to win anyway)
You’re right that many companies won’t trust a young SaaS with logs — especially when they can self-host.
But here’s the key insight:
Trust is built by giving users control, not by asking for it.
You already do this:
That’s exactly why they will trust you long-term.
Ironically, companies are far more willing to trust a cloud service when:
You’ve nailed that philosophy.
Where I think you should lean harder
Based on your own data, I’d strongly recommend doubling down on “logs as signals”, not logs as storage.
Some feature ideas that fit your direction:
1. Opinionated detection packs (huge value, low infra cost)
You already saw this with Sigma.
Go further:
These are business-relevant alerts, not SOC-only stuff.
This is where teams won’t roll their own.
2. Event timelines (logs → stories)
A killer feature would be:
Auto-group:
Make logs tell a narrative, not just rows.
This is extremely hard to do well — and very hard to DIY internally.
3. Safe-by-default alerting
Most teams hate alert fatigue.
Ideas:
This aligns perfectly with your “business monitoring via security tooling” insight.
4. Compliance-first features (underrated, powerful)
For GDPR-heavy users:
These don’t excite hackers — but they unlock budgets.
About Redis & “boring tech”
Your Redis instinct is correct.
For your audience (self-hosters), every dependency hurts adoption.
Replacing Redis with Postgres queues would be a huge trust win, even if it’s “less elegant”.
People don’t want clever.
They want deployable at 2am without docs.
Motivation, straight up
Even if Logtide never becomes “the next Datadog”:
That alone makes it a success.
And if you keep leaning into:
…you’re building something companies won’t want to replace, even if they could.
That’s the hardest kind of moat — and you’re closer than you think.
Keep going. This is real work.
Thank you so much for this incredibly thoughtful feedback. This comment genuinely helped me reframe what Logtide is really about.
You're absolutely right: I was getting caught up in the "logging is a commodity" anxiety, but you've nailed the actual value proposition privacy-first observability with control, not just another log storage tool.
The insight about "trust through control, not through asking" is particularly powerful. The 90% self-hosted rate isn't a weakness, it's validation that the philosophy is working.
Really a great read Polliog. I took the liberty of re-posting it to our Latin American developer network yoDEV.dev.
Its inspiring and has some nice nuggets of advice for others that may be on the same journey or getting ready to start.
Thanks for sharing.
The repost is unedited (of course) and mentions your dev.to username and a link to your repo on Github. Its translated to Spanish and Portuguese as well. The original English version will always be seen by folks who have their browser language set to English.
Saludos!
Link (if you wanna have a peek)
Thank you, feel free to use it^^
I will thanks. Hopefully our users will too !
We loved your post so we shared it on social.
Keep up the great work!
Thank you for the kinds words and for the post^^
Huge congrats on the 3k+ pulls! That's a massive milestone for month 2. 🔥
I'm currently in the "month 1" trench with my project (n8nworkflows.world). It's a niche search engine.
The reality check:
Traffic: ~30 unique visitors/day (Organic Google just started kicking in).
The struggle: I spent weeks optimizing UX (adding "Role-based" wizards, verified badges) thinking it would stick, but I feel like I'm building features for an empty room right now.
Question for you: In your first month, did you force yourself to stop coding features to focus 100% on marketing channels? Or did the traffic come naturally from the GitHub/Open Source ecosystem?
Trying to figure out if I should stop "improving" the site and start "shouting" about it more.
Thanks for sharing these insights! I love seeing real numbers and lessons learned from early launches—it’s so valuable for anyone building a product. Really inspiring to see your transparency and growth! 🚀
Any other recommendations for Reddit posts? And would you deem a marketing site necessary before “launch”?
It depens from the target, but personally reddit and some posts on reddit + dev.to or hackernews