Elastic Security vs syslog-ng comparison

Elastic and One Identity are both solutions in the Log Management category. Elastic is ranked #7 with an average rating of 8.5, while One Identity is ranked #17 with an average rating of 10.0. Elastic holds a 2.9% mindshare in Log Management, compared to One Identity’s 2.3% mindshare. Additionally, 86% of Elastic users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of One Identity users who would recommend it.

Elastic Security

Read 66 Elastic Security reviews

10,861 Views
5,648 Comparison Views

86% willing to recommend

syslog-ng

Read 7 syslog-ng reviews

3,803 Views
3,803 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Elastic Security

syslog-ng

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 9, 2024

Elastic Security and syslog-ng compete in the operational security category. Elastic Security seems to have the upper hand due to its robust security framework and advanced analytical features.

Features: Elastic Security provides advanced threat detection, a wide range of integration capabilities, and a comprehensive security framework. Syslog-ng focuses on effective log collection, high-performance data filtering, and efficient data processing.

Room for Improvement: Elastic Security could enhance scalability, reduce its resource-heavy nature, and improve performance optimization. Syslog-ng could benefit from more user-friendly settings, enhanced support documentation, and improved user accessibility.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Elastic Security requires significant deployment effort, often involving technical expertise and time, whereas syslog-ng offers a quicker setup but lacks robust customer support.

Pricing and ROI: Elastic Security is considered expensive, with mixed views on ROI due to its comprehensive features. Syslog-ng is generally viewed as cost-effective, providing a good balance between cost and functionality.

To learn more, read our detailed Elastic Security vs. syslog-ng Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Elastic Security vs. syslog-ng

September 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 872,922 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Elastic Security

Ranking in Log Management

7th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) (5th), Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (16th), Security Orchestration Automation and Response (SOAR) (5th), Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (8th)

syslog-ng

Ranking in Log Management

17th

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

3.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2025, in the Log Management category, the mindshare of Elastic Security is 2.9%, down from 4.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of syslog-ng is 2.3%, down from 2.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Log Management Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Elastic Security	2.9%
syslog-ng	2.3%
Other	94.8%

Log Management

Featured Reviews

Laurentiu Popescu

Chief Product Officer at ClusterPower

Has improved threat detection with deep log analysis and streamlined investigation workflows

The most useful features I find in Elastic Security are the forensic ones that allow us to carry deeper analysis into the logs for in-depth investigations, and the dashboards, with the reporting dashboard being quite user-friendly. Elastic Security is quite good at identifying threats, as it is part of the deep investigation tool that I mentioned before. Unless we need to look further into a certain log, we can carry out a deeper analysis and forensics on those particular logs. I can assess the impact of Elastic Security's real-time data analysis on our threat response efficiency as working pretty good. We are looking for real-time analysis because we have a continuous inflow of logs from different sources: from our cloud, from Active Directory, from our network. So it works pretty well.

Read full review

RyanVargas

Senior Director and Senior Systems Engineer (Dual Role), IT Infrastructure and Security at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees

It's a user-friendly open-source solution that can replace or augment a commercial product in some cases

I rate syslog-ng 10 out of 10. It's free and easy to use. It has built-in tools that help us index the various logs sent to it. It's a solid log product. If you're looking for a SIEM solution, syslog-ng will work as a stopgap measure at beginning of the project. It can also work as an injector for a true SIEM solution. You can send all the logs to syslog-ng and forward all the data to the SIEM solution after you've cleaned up the data and got the pertinent information. It's a good front end for a commercial SIEM solution, which becomes more expensive as you load more data into it. I would highly recommend syslog-ng for that use case. However, if you lack the expertise, you might need to go with a cloud-based SIEM instead. You need some in-house expertise or an outside consultant to manage it and set it up.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"Elastic Security makes data communication easier."

"The solution has a good community surrounding it for lots of helpful documentation for troubleshooting purposes."

"We chose the product based on the ability to scan for malware using a malware behavioral model as opposed to just a traditional hash-based antivirus. Therefore, it's not as intensive."

"It's very customizable, which is quite helpful."

"The most valuable feature for me is Discover."

"The solution's most valuable features are anomaly detection and connectivity reporting."

"It's not very complicated to install Elastic."

"It is scalable."

More Elastic Security pros

"We chose syslog-ng because it is easy to install, easy to maintain, easy to update, and due to the fact that all data arrive in raw format, we can manipulate it as we want."

"For us, the most valuable feature is the use of compound search for searching logs at a specific time, by a specific user, or specific behavior."

"Syslog-ng has built-in features that we can use to create alerts for a SIEM solution. It isn't a true SIEM solution, but it's sufficient for the time being."

"Syslog-ng provides easy access to all my logs. It helps me show managers and other clients precisely where an incident occurred. I also like it because you can integrate syslog-ng with multiple solutions to allow real-time monitoring."

"The ability to extract and store the logs is the most valuable feature of syslog-ng."

"Syslog-ng has a separate config file in addition to the core configuration."

Cons

"There are connectors to gather logs for Windows PCs and Linux PCs, but if we have to get the logs from Syslog then we have to do it manually, and this should be automated."

"The tool should improve its scalability."

"I do not have any specific recommendations for improvements in Elastic Security, but I feel that the AI module should get more mature."

"Continuous upgrades can be quite inconvenient. My security testing team continuously reports vulnerabilities, and we have to fix and update the versions frequently."

"Elastic Security could improve the documentation. It would help if they were more simple and clean."

"I think because we are a cybersecurity company, the thing that can be improved is the prebuilt tools, especially quality. Compared to its competitor, they still have fewer prebuilt security rules. Elastic Security, in terms of generating alerts, cannot group the same products into one another. Even though the alerts are the same, they still generate them one by one. So, it is very noisy in our dashboard. I would like the Elastic Security admin to group all the same alarms into one alarm so that our dashboard is not noisy."

"Anything that supports high availability or ease of deployment in a highly available environment would help to improve this solution."

"They don't provide user authentication and authorisation features (Shield) as a part of their open-source version."

More Elastic Security cons

"The filtering has room for improvement."

"Syslog-ng has built-in features that we can use to create alerts for a SIEM solution. It isn't a true SIEM solution, but it's sufficient for the time being."

"There is room for improvement in terms of observability."

"There is always the potential for additional integration and protocol extensions."

"In syslog-ng, I think a GUI would be beneficial. I am unsure if the premium module has a GUI to administer it."

"It's hard to find people who know how to use syslog-ng. I often find problems with configurations, and solutions aren't integrated correctly with syslog-ng. For example, there might be data with extra decimals, or the collector agents are incorrectly named. It isn't a problem with the solution; it's a lack of professionals."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Its price is fine. Its licensing works on a yearly basis. We have to renew the license every year. I also have a good experience with Darktrace. When we buy Darktrace, we get training free of cost, which is not there in Elastic. We have to pay extra for training. There is certainly room for improvement."

"There is no charge for using the open-source version."

"We are using the free, open-source version of this solution."

"Elastic Security is free to use."

"The solution is free."

"The base product is open-source but if you need advanced security features then you need to pay for the subscription. Elastic Security's price is reasonable in some cases and in other cases it's not."

"The pricing is in the middle. I think it is not an expensive experience if we compare it with big names, for example, QRadar, and also Oxide. I think Elastic Security is quite cheap. I would rate the pricing of this solution a five out of ten."

"We use the open-source version, so there is no charge for this solution."

More Elastic Security pricing and cost advice

"Syslog-ng is a free open-source solution."

"Syslog-ng is open-source."

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Log Management solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

872,922 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

14%

Government

10%

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

Government

13%

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	40
Midsize Enterprise	11
Large Enterprise	15

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	3
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	3

Questions from the Community

Datadog vs ELK: which one is good in terms of performance, cost and efficiency?

With Datadog, we have near-live visibility across our entire platform. We have seen APM metrics impacted several times lately using the dashboards we have created with Datadog; they are very good c...

See all answers

What do you like most about Elastic Security?

Elastic provides the capability to index quickly due to the reverse indexes it offers. This data is crucial as it contains critical information. The reverse index allows fast data indexing because ...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Elastic Security?

I am satisfied with the pricing, setup cost, and licensing cost. It is a pure 10.

See all answers

What needs improvement with syslog-ng?

We currently do not use that feature. We currently have just an open-source release, not a premium release. My boss has indicated that he wants to buy a premium syslog-ng version next month. I thin...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for syslog-ng?

In Italy, we have to be compliant with the Garante for privacy. We have to log every login, logout, or login failure made by a system administrator. We store all syslog data of the infrastructure. ...

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering syslog-ng?

When it comes to parsing, I can parse both structured and unstructured data, though our data are only structured. Currently, we collect all data we receive as raw data. Each file is stored for each...

See all answers

Comparisons

Wazuh vs Elastic Security

Compared 13% of the time

Splunk Enterprise Security vs Elastic Security

Compared 7% of the time

IBM Security QRadar vs Elastic Security

Compared 7% of the time

CrowdStrike Falcon vs Elastic Security

Compared 6% of the time

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint vs Elastic Security

Compared 5% of the time

More Elastic Security Competitors

Graylog Enterprise vs syslog-ng

Compared 29% of the time

SolarWinds Kiwi Syslog Server vs syslog-ng

Compared 21% of the time

Grafana Loki vs syslog-ng

Compared 8% of the time

Cribl vs syslog-ng

Compared 7% of the time

Elastic Stack vs syslog-ng

Compared 5% of the time

More syslog-ng Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Elastic Security

November 2025

Download Elastic Security product report

Buyer's Guide

syslog-ng

October 2025

Download syslog-ng product report

Also Known As

Elastic SIEM, ELK Logstash

No data available

Overview

Elastic Security is a robust, open-source security solution designed to offer integrated threat prevention, detection, and response capabilities across an organization's entire digital estate. Part of the Elastic Stack (which includes Elasticsearch, Logstash, and Kibana), Elastic Security leverages the power of search, analytics, and data aggregation to provide real-time insight into threats and vulnerabilities. It is a comprehensive platform that supports a wide range of security needs, from endpoint protection to cloud and network security, making it a versatile choice for organizations looking to enhance their cybersecurity posture.

Elastic Security combines the features of a security information and event management (SIEM) system with endpoint protection, allowing organizations to detect, investigate, and respond to threats in real time. This unified approach helps reduce complexity and improve the efficiency of security operations.

Additional offerings and benefits:

The platform utilizes advanced analytics, machine learning algorithms, and anomaly detection to identify threats and suspicious activities.
It offers extensive integration options with other tools and platforms, facilitating a more cohesive and comprehensive security ecosystem.
With Kibana, users gain access to powerful visualization tools and dashboards that provide real-time insight into security data.

Finally, Elastic Security benefits from a global community of users who contribute to its threat intelligence, helping to enhance its detection capabilities. This collaborative approach ensures that the solution remains on the cutting edge of cybersecurity, with up-to-date information on the latest threats and vulnerabilities.

Elastic

Optimizing SIEM
syslog-ng is the log management solution that improves the performance of your SIEM solution by reducing the amount and improving the quality of data feeding your SIEM.

Rapid search and troubleshooting
With syslog-ng Store Box, you can find the answer. Search billions of logs in seconds using full text queries with Boolean operators to pinpoint critical logs.

Meeting compliance requirements
syslog-ng Store Box provides secure, tamper-proof storage and custom reporting to demonstrate compliance.

Big data ingestion
syslog-ng can deliver data from a wide variety of sources to Hadoop, Elasticsearch, MongoDB, and Kafka as well as many others.

Universal log collection and routing
syslog-ng flexibly routes log data from X sources to Y destinations. Instead of deploying multiple agents on hosts, organizations can unify their log data collection and management.

Secure data archive
syslog-ng Store Box provides automated archiving, tamper-proof encrypted storage, granular access controls to protect log data. The largest appliance can store up to 10TB of raw logs.

One Identity

Sample Customers

Texas A&M, U.S. Air Force, NuScale Power, Martin's Point Health Care

Tecnocom, University of Victoria, University of Exeter, Datapath

Buyer's Guide

Elastic Security vs. syslog-ng

September 2025

Free Report: Elastic Security vs. syslog-ng

Find out what your peers are saying about Elastic Security vs. syslog-ng and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

872,922 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Elastic Security vs. syslog-ng report.

See our list of best Log Management vendors.

We monitor all Log Management reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.