The log4net project was started by Neoworks Limited in June 2001. It was created as an internal project within Neoworks to port the Apache log4j code base to the Microsoft .NET Framework. The code base was initially branched from a pre-alpha log4j 1.2.
In July 2001 a Sourceforge project was started and log4net was published under the Apache Software License. The first public release of log4net was made in September 2001. A further 10 releases were made on the sourceforge site.
In December 2003 the Apache Logging Services project was created. In February 2004 log4net was donated by Neoworks to the Apache Software Foundation to become a member of the Logging Services project.
In February 2007 log4net graduated from the Apache Incubator project to become a fully fledged Apache project. Apache log4net is a subproject of the Logging Services project.