For Laravel

Vinktar and Laravel Nightwatch, compared

Nightwatch watches every request, query and job in a Laravel app. Vinktar tracks the errors, what each user did before them, and the product events you choose, each on its own budget.

Start freeHow to switch

Free up to 50,000 errors a month. No card.

Claude Code~/harrowby/api

> Add Vinktar error tracking to this Laravel app.

vinktar - get_install_guide (MCP)

Laravel: the Sentry Laravel SDK, pointed at Vinktar

Bash(composer require sentry/sentry-laravel)

Installed sentry/sentry-laravel

Update(.env)

Added SENTRY_LARAVEL_DSN

Bash(php artisan sentry:test)

Test event sent

vinktar - get_setup_status (MCP)(project: "api")

1 error received from production, release api@4.12.0

>Add Vinktar error tracking to this Laravel app.

Connect api

Laravel, keeping the Sentry SDK

  1. Step 1, done: The Sentry SDK points at Vinktar
    SENTRY_LARAVEL_DSN changed, nothing else
  2. Step 2, done: First error arrived
    A test exception from production
  3. Step 3, done: Release and environment tagged
    api@4.12.0, production
  4. Step 4: Waiting for a signed-in user
    Set the user id so errors join to the people they hit

Fair to say

Where Nightwatch is the better choice

Made by Laravel, for Laravel

Nightwatch is purpose-built for Laravel and hooks into its queues, events and request lifecycle, with no configuration to write.

Performance, not only errors

It records requests, queries, jobs, mail, cache, commands and scheduled tasks, with timelines across them. Vinktar has no performance monitoring.

An MCP server of its own

Your agent can browse Nightwatch issues, read stack traces and update them, and Laravel Boost can set the connection up.

What Vinktar does

Errors, what led to them, and an agent that can read both

01 · Errors

Errors on a budget of their own

Vinktar counts errors and product events separately, and never counts a request or a query. A busy day of traffic does not use up your errors.

Laravel sends errors through the Sentry Laravel SDK, tested with sentry-laravel 4.28 on Laravel 13.

Read the Laravel guide

Connect api

Laravel, keeping the Sentry SDK

  1. Step 1, done: The Sentry SDK points at Vinktar
    SENTRY_LARAVEL_DSN changed, nothing else
  2. Step 2, done: First error arrived
    A test exception from production
  3. Step 3, done: Release and environment tagged
    api@4.12.0, production
  4. Step 4: Waiting for a signed-in user
    Set the user id so errors join to the people they hit

02 · Understand

See what happened before the crash

Every error keeps the half hour before it: the requests, the breadcrumbs and the events you track, from the same user.

Open an issue in the live demo

Events before· 4

What this session sent in the 30 minutes before, newest firstOpen in Explore
  1. 12s beforereport_viewed/app/reports/revenue
  2. 1m 35s beforesearch_performed/app/reports
  3. 3m 10s beforedashboard_viewed/app/dashboards
  4. 4m 20s beforelog_in/login

03 · Fix

Your coding agent reads it too

Connect Claude Code, Cursor or Codex over MCP. It reads the issue, the stack trace and what the user did, and anything a browser sent reaches it fenced as data.

Connect your agent
Claude Code~/harrowby/api

> Why are invoice syncs failing?

vinktar - get_issue (MCP)(issueId: 158)

QueryException: Deadlock found, 23 events since api@4.12.0

Two SyncInvoices jobs lock the same rows in a different order. I will make them lock in id order.

>Why are invoice syncs failing?

How each counts

Events in Nightwatch, errors in Vinktar

In Nightwatch every request, query, job, mail, cache operation, command and scheduled task is one event, so a request that runs ten queries is eleven.

Laravel NightwatchVinktar
Free300,000 events and 14 days of lookback. A free project pauses after 30 days without traffic50,000 errors and 1,000,000 events, 30 days of history
First paid planPro, $20 a month: 7.5 million events, 30 days of lookbackStarter, $29: 150,000 errors and 3,000,000 events, 1 year of history
Over the planExtra events at $0.20 to $0.50 per 100,000, up to a spending cap you setNothing is charged. Ingest pauses at twice the plan
Performance monitoringYesNo
Runs onLaravelAny app on a Sentry SDK or the Vinktar SDK

Nightwatch’s plans from laravel.com/nightwatch/pricing, read 20 October 2026. Vinktar’s from its plan catalogue.

Vinktar’s price

One flat price a month

Errors and product events have their own budgets. Over the plan, nothing is charged: you get an email, and ingest pauses at twice the plan until the month turns or you upgrade.

Free

$0a month

Errors
50,000
Events
1,000,000
History
30 days

Starter

$29a month

Errors
150,000
Events
3,000,000
History
1 year

Pro

$99a month

Errors
500,000
Events
5,000,000
History
1 year

Seats and projects are unlimited on every plan. See pricing or price your month.

Switching

Move an app off Nightwatch

  1. 1

    Create a project

    Sign up free, no card. The project’s Connect page shows its DSN.
  2. 2

    Install the Sentry Laravel SDK with Vinktar’s DSN

    composer require sentry/sentry-laravel
php artisan sentry:publish --dsn=https://vnk_pk_YOUR_KEY@in.vinktar.com/YOUR_PROJECT_ID
  3. 3

    Report request exceptions

    On Laravel 11 and later, this line in bootstrap/app.php is what reports an exception a request throws.
    use Sentry\Laravel\Integration;

->withExceptions(function (Exceptions $exceptions): void {
    Integration::handles($exceptions);
})
  4. 4

    Send a test exception

    Within a few seconds the project’s Errors page lists it, with its release and environment.
    php artisan sentry:test

Questions

What people ask first

Can I run Nightwatch and Vinktar together?
Yes. Laravel says Nightwatch runs beside other monitoring tools. Keep it for performance and send your errors to Vinktar.
Is there a Vinktar package for Laravel?
Errors go through the Sentry Laravel SDK. Product events go through vinktarhq/php, which is in beta, on the same user id.
Does Vinktar show slow queries or slow routes?
No. Vinktar has no performance monitoring. Nightwatch is the better tool for that.
Where is my data stored?
In Helsinki, Finland. Vinktar is hosted only.

Errors that do not run out with your traffic

Install the Sentry Laravel SDK with Vinktar’s DSN and see what each user did before the crash.

Start freeHow to switch