Instabug

What is Instabug

Instabug is a software platform designed for mobile application teams to monitor, identify, and resolve issues within their apps. Its main purpose is to provide mobile observability, which includes bug reporting, crash reporting, application performance monitoring, and user feedback collection. Founded in 2014 by Omar Gabr and Moataz Soliman, the company has its headquarters in San Francisco, California, with a significant presence in Cairo, Egypt. Instabug helps developers and product managers understand the user experience by providing detailed context with every report, such as device logs, network requests, and user steps. This allows teams to fix problems faster and build higher-quality mobile applications.

Instabug Features

• Bug Reporting: Allows users and testers to report bugs directly from the app by simply shaking their device or taking a screenshot. Each report automatically includes detailed device information, console logs, and a screenshot that users can annotate.
• Crash Reporting: Automatically captures and sends detailed crash reports. It groups similar crashes together, providing a full stack trace to help developers quickly identify the root cause of the crash.
• App Performance Monitoring (APM): Helps teams monitor and optimize app performance. It tracks key metrics like app launch time, UI hangs, and network request performance to ensure a smooth user experience.
• Session Replay: Provides a visual reconstruction of user sessions, showing exactly what a user did before encountering a bug or a crash. This helps developers reproduce issues with precision.
• In-App Surveys and Feedback: Enables teams to collect direct feedback from users through in-app surveys and ratings prompts. This is useful for understanding user satisfaction and gathering ideas for new features.
• Release Management: Offers a dashboard to monitor the health and adoption of new app releases. Teams can track stability scores and performance metrics for each version to ensure new releases are successful.

Instabug Pricing Plans

Instabug offers several pricing plans tailored to different team sizes and needs. The plans are typically structured in tiers.

• Basic Plan: Aimed at small teams and startups, this plan includes core features like bug and crash reporting with some limitations on data retention and monthly active users.
• Pro Plan: Designed for growing mobile teams, this plan offers more advanced features, including application performance monitoring, more integrations, and higher data limits.
• Enterprise Plan: A custom solution for large organizations that require advanced security, dedicated support, unlimited data retention, and features like session replay and single sign-on (SSO).

Instabug Free Plan

Instabug offers a free plan that is suitable for indie developers, small projects, or open-source applications. This plan includes basic bug and crash reporting functionalities but comes with limitations, such as a lower cap on monthly active users (MAUs), a limited number of team members, and shorter data retention periods. For teams that need more advanced features or have a larger user base, Instabug provides a 14-day free trial of its paid plans.

How to use Instabug

Getting started with Instabug is a straightforward process:

1. Sign Up: Create an account on the Instabug website.
2. Add Your App: In the Instabug dashboard, add a new application and select its platform (e.g., iOS, Android, React Native).
3. Integrate the SDK: Follow the provided instructions to integrate the Instabug SDK into your mobile application's code. This usually involves adding a few lines of code and your unique application token.
4. Configure Settings: Customize the SDK's behavior. You can choose how users can invoke the bug reporting feature, such as by shaking the device, taking a screenshot, or tapping a floating button.
5. Release Your App: Deploy your application to testers or the public.
6. Monitor and Analyze: Once the app is live, you can view all incoming bug reports, crashes, and performance data on your Instabug dashboard. You can then assign issues to team members and track their progress.

Pros and Cons of Instabug

Pros:

• Easy for Users: The 'shake to report' feature is very intuitive for end-users to submit feedback and bug reports.
• Comprehensive Data: Each report is rich with contextual data, including device details, logs, and user steps, which reduces debugging time.
• All-in-One Platform: Combines bug reporting, crash reporting, APM, and user feedback in a single tool.
• Wide Platform Support: Supports a variety of mobile development frameworks, including native iOS/Android, React Native, Flutter, and Unity.
• Strong Integrations: Connects smoothly with popular project management and communication tools.

Cons:

• Pricing: The cost can be high for apps with a large number of monthly active users, making it a significant investment for some companies.
• Complex Dashboard: With so many features, the dashboard can feel overwhelming for new users.
• Performance Overhead: Like any third-party SDK, it can add a small amount of overhead to the app's performance if not configured carefully.

Instabug integrations

Instabug integrates with many popular tools to streamline development workflows. These integrations allow teams to sync issue reports and data automatically.

• Jira: Create Jira tickets directly from bug reports in Instabug.
• Slack: Receive real-time notifications for new crashes and bug reports in your Slack channels.
• Trello: Convert bug reports into Trello cards for your project boards.
• GitHub & GitLab: Link bug reports to GitHub or GitLab issues for better tracking.
• Zendesk: Forward user feedback and bug reports to your Zendesk support queue.
• Asana: Create Asana tasks from Instabug reports to manage your team's work.

To set up an integration, you typically navigate to the 'Integrations' section in the Instabug dashboard, select the desired tool, and follow the authentication and configuration steps.

Instabug Alternatives

• Sentry: A popular open-source error tracking tool that supports a wide range of platforms, including mobile and web. It is known for its strong error monitoring and performance tracking capabilities.
• Firebase Crashlytics: A free crash reporting solution from Google. It is a part of the Firebase platform and is very popular among Android and iOS developers for its simplicity and deep integration with the Google ecosystem.
• Bugsnag: A stability monitoring platform that provides detailed crash reporting and error analysis. It helps teams understand app stability and prioritize fixes effectively.
• Shake: A direct competitor focused on bug and crash reporting for mobile apps. It also offers a simple user interface and easy SDK integration, similar to Instabug.

Instabug API

Yes, Instabug provides a REST API that allows developers to programmatically access their data. You can use the API to retrieve bug reports, crash data, user feedback, and more. To use the API, you need to generate an API token from your Instabug dashboard, which is usually found in the account or application settings. This token must be included in the header of your API requests for authentication.

Here is an example of how to use the API with cURL to fetch a list of bug reports:

curl "https://api.instabug.com/api/v2/applications/YOUR_APP_TOKEN/bugs" \
-H "Authorization: Token token=\"YOUR_API_TOKEN\""

For more details, developers can consult the official Instabug API documentation on their website.

Instabug Affiliate program

Instabug does not publicly advertise a standard affiliate program with fixed commission rates. Its business model is more focused on direct sales and partnerships with larger organizations. However, companies or individuals interested in becoming a partner, reseller, or promoting Instabug can contact their sales or partnership team directly through their website to discuss potential collaboration opportunities. They may offer custom partnership agreements for those who can drive significant business.