Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Graylog VS Elastic Stack

Compare Graylog VS Elastic Stack and see what are their differences

Graylog logo Graylog

Graylog is an open source log management platform for collecting, indexing, and analyzing both structured and unstructured data.

Elastic Stack logo Elastic Stack

Meet the search platform that helps you search, solve, and succeed
  • Graylog Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-20
  • Elastic Stack Landing page
    Landing page //
    2024-04-20

Graylog

$ Details
Release Date
2012 January
Startup details
Country
United States
State
Texas
City
Houston
Founder(s)
Hass Chapman
Employees
10 - 19

Graylog features and specs

  • Centralized Logging
    Graylog aggregates and encodes all logs into a central location, making it easier to manage and monitor log data across distributed systems.
  • Scalability
    Graylog is designed to scale horizontally, allowing users to expand capacity by adding more servers, which is vital for growing environments.
  • Real-time Search and Analysis
    Graylog provides powerful search and filtering capabilities in real-time, enabling quick troubleshooting and root cause analysis.
  • Alerting and Notification
    Graylog can send alerts based on log data and specified conditions, helping users to proactively respond to issues and mitigate risks efficiently.
  • Extensible and Customizable
    Graylog allows for plugins and provides REST APIs for integration with other services, offering high levels of customization to fit various business needs.
  • User-friendly Interface
    Graylog offers an intuitive web-based interface that simplifies the process of managing and visualizing log data, making it accessible even for those with minimal technical knowledge.

Possible disadvantages of Graylog

  • Complex Setup
    Setting up Graylog can be complicated and time-consuming, particularly for users not familiar with log management and system administration.
  • Resource Intensive
    Graylog can be resource-intensive, requiring significant CPU, memory, and storage resources, which could be a limitation for smaller environments.
  • Steep Learning Curve
    Despite its user-friendly interface, mastering Graylog's advanced features may require a steep learning curve and significant investment in training.
  • Potential Vendor Lock-in
    Relying heavily on Graylog's ecosystem for log management can create dependencies that may be challenging to transition away from if needed.
  • Cost for Enterprise Features
    While Graylog offers a free open-source version, some advanced features and enterprise-grade capabilities are only available in the paid version, potentially increasing costs.
  • Limited Out-of-the-box Dashboards
    Graylog's default dashboard capabilities might not meet all needs, requiring additional customization or third-party tools to create comprehensive visualizations.

Elastic Stack features and specs

  • Scalability
    Elastic Stack is designed to scale horizontally, enabling you to add more nodes to handle increased loads and data sizes seamlessly.
  • Real-Time Data Processing
    Provides capabilities for real-time data ingestion and processing, making it suitable for use cases like monitoring and logging where timely insights are critical.
  • Powerful Search and Analytics
    Offers powerful full-text search capabilities through Elasticsearch, along with data visualization tools via Kibana for insightful analytics.
  • Flexible Data Ingestion
    Supports various data ingestion methods and sources including Logstash, Beats, and direct API calls, allowing for flexible data integrations.
  • Open Source and Mature Ecosystem
    Being open-source, Elastic Stack benefits from a large community, robust documentation, and a mature ecosystem of plugins and integrations.

Possible disadvantages of Elastic Stack

  • Complexity in Setup and Management
    Setting up and managing an Elastic Stack cluster can be complex and may require significant expertise, especially with larger deployments.
  • Resource Intensive
    Elastic Stack can be resource-intensive in terms of CPU, memory, and storage, which may necessitate substantial infrastructure investments.
  • Security Considerations
    While Elastic Stack includes security features, properly securing a deployment involves additional configuration and possibly extra licensing costs.
  • Cost for Paid Features
    Certain advanced features, such as machine learning, are part of the paid Elastic subscriptions, which can add to costs for enterprise users.
  • Steep Learning Curve
    Mastering the Elastic Stack's wide range of functionalities and configurations can be challenging, especially for new users without prior experience.

Analysis of Graylog

Overall verdict

  • Graylog is considered a robust and reliable log management tool, especially suitable for organizations looking for an open-source solution with enterprise capabilities. Its strong community support and extensive documentation make it a popular choice among IT professionals.

Why this product is good

  • Graylog is highly regarded for its ability to centralize and manage log data from various sources in real-time. It offers powerful search and analysis capabilities with a simple interface and supports a wide range of plugins and integrations. Graylog also excels in scalability, allowing users to handle large volumes of data efficiently.

Recommended for

  • System administrators looking for a centralized log management solution
  • IT security teams requiring real-time log analysis and monitoring
  • Organizations operating in a scalable environment with large data volumes
  • Developers needing customizable dashboards and reporting tools
  • Businesses that prefer open-source software with enterprise features

Graylog videos

Graylog 3 0 OpenSource Demo

More videos:

  • Review - Graylog, Open Source Log Management
  • Review - 22. Graylog 3.0 Sidecar Windows Configuration

Elastic Stack videos

No Elastic Stack videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

Add video

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Graylog and Elastic Stack)
Monitoring Tools
100 100%
0% 0
Office & Productivity
0 0%
100% 100
Log Management
100 100%
0% 0
File Management
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Graylog and Elastic Stack

Graylog Reviews

The Top 14 Free and Open Source SIEM Tools For 2022
Our last tool but by no means the least is Graylog. It is a log management platform that gathers data from different locations across your network infrastructure.
Source: logit.io
Top 10 Log Management Services
Graylog is a well-known log management tool because of its services. It provides a user interface just like some other log management tools. Almost all of the provided features are the same other than reading from Syslog files. Here you cannot read directly read from the Syslog files. It is inconvenient because you have to send your messages to Graylog.
Best Log Management Tools: Useful Tools for Log Management, Monitoring, Analytics, and More
Graylog is a free and open-source log management tool that supports in-depth log collection and analysis. Used by teams in Network Security, IT Ops and DevOps, you can count on Graylog’s ability to discern any potential risks to security, lets you follow compliance rules, and helps to understand the root cause of any particular error or problem that your apps are experiencing.
Source: stackify.com

Elastic Stack Reviews

10 Best Grafana Alternatives [2023 Comparison]
The appeal to Elastic Stack is that it doesn’t cost anything to download and use. Of course, like any open-source solution, there will be additional management costs. That being said, once it’s installed, you will gain instant access to all the tools listed above. Using these tools, you can ship data from multiple sources, process it, and then subsequently store it in a...
Source: sematext.com
10 Best Linux Monitoring Tools and Software to Improve Server Performance [2022 Comparison]
Lastly, the Elastic Stack (ELK Stack) is a well-known tool for Linux performance monitoring. It’s composed of Elasticsearch (full-text search), Logstash (a log aggregator), Kibana (visualization via graphs and charts), and Beats (lightweight metrics collectors and shippers).
Source: sematext.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Graylog seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 3 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Graylog mentions (3)

  • Datadog vs. Splunk: Observability Tools Comparison
    GraylogGraylog is an open-source platform that provides log management, search, and real-time analysis. It also performs SIEM operations, making it a perfect alternative to Splunk. - Source: dev.to / 5 days ago
  • Enhancing API Observability Series (Part 2): Log Analysis
    Graylog: Supports various log sources and formats, providing real-time search, analysis, and visualization functionalities. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Join us June 24 at 11:00 AM EDT: "All Things Configured” Discord Show with our founder, Lennart Koopman
    Join our new Graylog Community Discord channel for our new chat/call-in show, “All Things Configured”. Our founder, Lennart Koopman, will host the show with Jeff Darrington, Senior Technical Marketing Manager, as his guest. Jeff’s well-known to many of you as the star of our Graylog How-To series of videos and blog posts on Graylog.org. Get a jump on the event, which will be live on Friday, June 24 at 11:00 AM EDT. Source: almost 3 years ago

Elastic Stack mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Elastic Stack yet. Tracking of Elastic Stack recommendations started around Apr 2024.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Graylog and Elastic Stack, you can also consider the following products

Sumo Logic - Sumo Logic is a secure, purpose-built cloud-based machine data analytics service that leverages big data for real-time IT insights

ElasticHQ - Tool for ElasticSearch management and monitoring.

Datadog - See metrics from all of your apps, tools & services in one place with Datadog's cloud monitoring as a service solution. Try it for free.

LogFusion - Log fusion is a software that helps you to display and monitor your log files in real-time by relying on this lightweight application that features a massive range of useful function.

Logz.io - Logz.io provides log analysis software with alerts, role-based access, unlimited scalability and free ELK apps. Index, search & visualize your log data!

Shotgun - Production tracking, asset management, and review. Helping your whole team go faster.