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Grafana Loki vs VMware Aria Operations for Logs comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 9, 2024

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

Grafana Loki
Ranking in Log Management
4th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.8
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
VMware Aria Operations for ...
Ranking in Log Management
12th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
28
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Log Management category, the mindshare of Grafana Loki is 8.7%, up from 4.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware Aria Operations for Logs is 1.3%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Log Management
 

Featured Reviews

Volodymyr Bondarchuk - PeerSpot reviewer
Integrations enhance monitoring but problem-solving proves challenging
Different types of integrations with various sources are the most helpful and useful features of Grafana Loki that I found for myself. As part of Kubernetes technology, I noticed benefits from using this product such as availability, configuration balancing, high availability solutions for high performance, and failover clustering. It provides a clear picture about the state of the system and gives needed information for taking action and quickly fixing problems.
LarsChristensen - PeerSpot reviewer
Efficient troubleshooting with precise log filtering and an easy setup
The tool could benefit from improved filter settings and dashboarding. While there are dashboards available, they are often created by community members and may not work after updates. It would be beneficial to have a roadmap for these dashboards to ensure consistent functionality. It would also be advantageous if the tool could process even large amounts of data faster, though this may be more related to data movement challenges rather than the software itself.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Different types of integrations with various sources are the most helpful and useful features of Grafana Loki that I found for myself."
"The log collection feature is good and the solution is easily understandable. v"
"The tool can be used in multi-cluster environments."
"The most valuable feature is the capability to set up alerts, which becomes necessary when we need to receive notifications for specific events."
"The effectiveness of filters is pivotal for optimizing the search process and extracting the specific information we need from the extensive log data."
"The product's most valuable features are ease of installation, management, and reporting. It has an efficient ability to set thresholds for alerts, as well."
"The best feature of Grafana Loki is that it integrates well with our other tool."
"Grafana Loki is easy to monitor and detect errors."
"The system's management and its alerts are the most valuable aspects of the solution."
"The solution's simplicity, flexibility, and extensibility are valuable features as we can integrate everything in vRealize."
"The most valuable features are log centralization and long-term retention for logs."
"The root cause analysis feature is very valuable."
"Overall, I would recommend VMware Aria Operations for Logs because it is a good tool with many valuable features."
"vRealize Log Insight has been running without any issues."
"The tool helps my company deal with security and log analysis, which are very important areas for us...It is a scalable solution."
"What I like is that you can have different storage locations for different applications."
 

Cons

"Visualization-wise, Grafana Loki's dashboard looks a little outdated compared to other open-source visualization tools like Chronograf."
"There is a need for some change in the alerting types of the product. In short, a few changes in the alert area are needed due to minor shortcomings."
"We face some bugs when we install the latest version of Grafana Loki."
"It's not intended for proprietary services, so you have to struggle with configuration a lot."
"The solution has shortcomings regarding security monitoring-oriented features that need improvement."
"My main concern is the recommended production-grade setup. They suggest using tools like Tanka or Jsonnet. They should simplify the process to increase adoption."
"I do not see any areas for improvement at the moment."
"The Docker container partition feature needs improvement as they do not reuse the space and goes into a pending state."
"The product's price falls on the higher end of the spectrum, making it an area of concern."
"The tool could benefit from improved filter settings and dashboarding."
"What I'd like to improve in vRealize Log Insight is the licensing model. VMware provides vRealize Log Insight along with the VMware Cloud Foundation, but customers who would like to go for the native VMware would have to procure vRealize Log Insight separately. Today, vRealize Log Insight is offered on two different licenses, one is based on the number of VMs, and the other is based on the number of physical codes on the machine. If VMware can provide a bundle offer for customers who procure more than ten licenses, where you can have an option to run, for example, three hundred machines on vRealize Log Insight with no extra cost, this would encourage more people to adopt the solution. What I'd like to see in the next release of vRealize Log Insight is for a cloud option to be available, which would be a pay-as-you-go licensing model that would allow me to pick and choose what I'll monitor. For example, I have one thousand and three hundred critical servers, and the seven hundred servers for basic development, I don't want to monitor on vRealize Log Insight today, so I should be able to pick what I need to monitor on the solution and only pay for that specific instance. If VMware can apply these changes, it would help VMware customers to procure more or adopt more of vRealize Log Insight even in smaller projects."
"Paid or free does not matter, but it is complex to find good training material for vRealize Log Insight."
"Log retention should have more options for user control."
"The tool could be cheaper."
"The solution isn't user-friendly for admins."
"If data migration occurs during a search, it alters performance, causing delays."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"You can use the free version of Grafana Loki on-premises."
"The pricing structure varies based on the number of users; there might be specific taxes to pay for it."
"I use the solution's open-source version. Grafana Loki is a completely free solution for me."
"Since we are using the open-source version of Grafana Loki, we are not paying anything for the solution."
"The cost is less than other paid services like CloudWatch."
"Grafana Loki is a free, open-source solution."
"I find the licensing structure quite reasonable, as the free license effectively meets my requirements."
"My company doesn't need to pay for the licensing cost of the solution."
"Pricing is good because it is part of the suite package. It comes in a bundle for us."
"The product's price is reasonable, but when it comes to SQL licensing, it's a bit expensive."
"The pricing has been updated recently."
"Pricing could always be lower. If it were free, I would be more satisfied."
"I am not sure what the exact cost is. However, I believe the vRealize suite costs $2,500.00 per year."
"The license cost for any other monitoring tool is too high compared to this product."
"I rate the product's price a six on a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive."
"The licensing cost for vRealize Log Insight is a little higher, so in terms of cost, it all depends upon what kind of environment you have. If you have a complete virtualized environment, or at least you're using a ninety-five percent virtualized environment, then vRealize Log Insight will play a very good role because it is a VMware component, so it has very tight integration with other VMware components and systems. This means you don't have to procure any other monitoring and management tool, and you don't need a separate automation tool. vRealize Log Insight will have an upper hand if your environment is purely virtualized on VMware. If you're using a mix of physical and virtual components, for example, a 50:50 ratio, then you need to have a third-party component to manage overall monitoring."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Government
12%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Grafana Loki?
We are using Grafana Loki as a database for real-time metrics.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Grafana Loki?
We use the open-source version of Loki. The cloud version is competitively priced compared to other market solutions.
What needs improvement with Grafana Loki?
It would be beneficial if Loki could directly access Windows Server logs or events directly from the servers.
What do you like most about vRealize Log Insight?
The events are notably more descriptive, aiding in security and event analysis. We've also integrated Sky Collector, providing valuable insights and solutions for troubleshooting.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for vRealize Log Insight?
The cost of using VMware Aria Operations for Logs was very high, around two to three million dollars, although the exact figure is uncertain. The price was proving to be too much, especially with t...
What needs improvement with vRealize Log Insight?
VMware Aria Operations for Logs is not a cost-effective tool. Changing any telemetry requires creating a new template, such as changes to the VM disk size. Always having to create a new template ma...
 

Also Known As

No data available
vRealize Log Insight
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Wildlands Adventure Zoo, Medic Mobile, IBM, Seventy Seven Energy, Baystate Health, Osis, Oxford University, Columbia University, Siemens, Cardinal Health, Ashdod Port, Vasakronan, Sydney Adventist Hospital, University of Derby
Find out what your peers are saying about Grafana Loki vs. VMware Aria Operations for Logs and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
856,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.