Dozzle
Dozzle is a lightweight, open-source, web-based log viewer for Docker containers. It streams stdout and stderr from running containers in real time, giving you a fast way to see what services are doing without SSH or the docker logs CLI. It runs as a single container, requires no database, and has a low resource footprint.
It’s built for developers, operators of single-node or small clusters, home labs, and staging environments. If you want immediate visibility into container logs during development or incident triage—and a full ELK/EFK stack would be overkill—Dozzle offers a simple, browser-based solution. Learn more at the official site: https://dozzle.dev.
Use Cases
- Developer debugging: follow a single container’s output, search for errors, and view pretty-printed JSON lines during local development.
- Incident triage: quickly tail real-time logs across services on a host to confirm deploy status, regressions, or runtime exceptions.
- Small environments and home labs: lightweight alternative to heavy log stacks for a handful of services.
- Shared visibility: give teammates or non-CLI stakeholders browser access to logs during reviews or demos.
- Staging/CI smoke checks: validate new builds by watching container logs immediately after deployment.
- File-backed logs (with mounts): when apps log to files, mount them on the host and configure Dozzle to follow those files.
Strengths
- Real-time log tailing: live streaming of stdout/stderr for fast feedback during debugging and ops.
- Web-based UI: accessible from any browser; no local CLI setup required.
- Simple container scoping: filter by container and focus on a single service when needed.
- Search and basic filtering: quickly find relevant lines without exporting logs.
- Pretty JSON: colorized/structured view improves readability of JSON-formatted logs.
- Minimal setup, no database: runs as a single Docker container with low operational overhead.
- Easy deployment: works with Docker, Compose, and Kubernetes; fits naturally into containerized workflows.
- Low resource footprint: suitable for laptops, home servers, and small VMs.
- Open-source (MIT): free to use, inspect, and extend; active community on GitHub.
- Works with Docker logging drivers: integrates with standard Docker logging architecture.
- Optional host log following: can tail host-mounted log files when configured.
Limitations
- Not a centralized logging solution: no long-term storage, indexing, alerting, or aggregation across clusters.
- Limited multi-host visibility: primarily reads logs from the host it runs on; cross-host aggregation requires external tooling.
- File-based logs need mounts: logs written inside containers to files aren’t visible unless mounted to the host.
- Basic query capabilities: simple search/filter only—no advanced query language, dashboards, or analytics.
- Authentication/enterprise features: limited built-in auth; many teams run it behind a reverse proxy for access control and TLS.
- Dependent on Docker logging configuration: behavior follows the chosen Docker logging driver and its settings.
Final Thoughts
Dozzle excels at one job: fast, real-time visibility into Docker logs with minimal setup. It’s ideal for development, staging, single-node hosts, and small clusters where simplicity and speed matter more than long-term retention or advanced analytics.
Use Dozzle as a complementary tool alongside centralized logging when you need history, alerting, or multi-host aggregation. For best results, emit application logs to stdout/stderr, keep Dozzle’s access scoped to what you need, and consider placing it behind a reverse proxy with authentication. If your requirements grow to include retention and rich querying, pair Dozzle with systems like ELK/EFK, Loki/Grafana, or a managed log platform—while keeping Dozzle for quick, live tailing.