Graylog Enterprise vs Logstash comparison

Graylog and Elastic are both solutions in the Log Management category. Graylog is ranked #15 with an average rating of 7.0, while Elastic is ranked #26 with an average rating of 9.0. Graylog holds a 5.4% mindshare in Log Management, compared to Elastic’s 0.8% mindshare. Additionally, 95% of Graylog users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 75% of Elastic users who would recommend it.

Graylog Enterprise

Read 22 Graylog Enterprise reviews

7,882 Views
7,882 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Logstash

Read 5 Logstash reviews

914 Views
914 Comparison Views

75% willing to recommend

Graylog Enterprise

Logstash

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 14, 2025

Graylog Enterprise and Logstash are competing in the log management and analytics domain. Graylog Enterprise appears to have the upper hand with higher satisfaction in price and customer support, while Logstash thrives with its versatile data processing capabilities.

Features: Graylog Enterprise offers enhanced log management, customizable dashboards, and advanced alerting. Logstash provides flexible data ingestion, real-time data processing, and a rich plugin ecosystem, making it adaptable to different environments.

Room for Improvement: Graylog Enterprise could benefit from more cost-effective pricing options, additional integration capabilities, and an improved user interface. Logstash might focus on simplifying deployment, enhancing ease of use, and offering more robust documentation for non-technical users.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Graylog Enterprise facilitates streamlined deployment with strong technical support, boosting user satisfaction. Logstash requires more manual configuration, which can be time-consuming but allows greater flexibility.

Pricing and ROI: Graylog Enterprise has a higher upfront cost but delivers favorable ROI with its performance and support, appealing to enterprises prioritizing overall value. Logstash's low initial setup costs may require additional resources for optimal performance, leading to varied ROI perceptions.

To learn more, read our detailed Graylog Enterprise vs. Logstash Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Graylog Enterprise vs. Logstash

December 2025

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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

Graylog Enterprise

Ranking in Log Management

15th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Logstash

Ranking in Log Management

26th

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

5.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2025, in the Log Management category, the mindshare of Graylog Enterprise is 5.4%, down from 6.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Logstash is 0.8%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Log Management Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Graylog Enterprise	5.4%
Logstash	0.8%
Other	93.8%

Log Management

Featured Reviews

reviewer2704128

Head of Cyber Security & CTO at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

Robust event correlation enhances operations, yet integration scope can broaden for seamless data handling

The features and capabilities of Graylog that we have found most valuable are related to its basis on open search, which was ElasticSearch. We appreciate being able to integrate custom feeds and do custom parsers, and to be able to do some of the correlation on it. That all works effectively. The Graylog features that have proven to be most beneficial for our data analysis in particular are that we tend to use it as a big data store, so we have the correlation rules that, if something matches under certain conditions, it raises an alarm. We use it for investigating problems and problem management. We throw all the information at it, we have it alerting for certain conditions, but generally we use it for deep diving into issues as needed.

Read full review

Mohammed-Abdelalim

Assistant Vice President at QualityKiosk Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

Exploring resilience and integration capabilities while navigating complexity and technical challenges

Logstash lacks a graphical user interface, necessitating a strong programming background to handle it effectively. It is challenging for business users who need a skilled team for its operation. Changing pipelines is not easy because Logstash requires pipelines to be programmed and cannot just be dragged and dropped like other data solutions. Additionally, Logstash does not automatically make actions based on the data it receives; integrating automation tools is required.

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

"What I like about Graylog is that it's real-time and you have access to the raw data. So, you ingest it, and you have access to every message and every data item you ingest. You can then build analytics on top of that. You can look at the raw data, and you can do some volumetric estimations, such as how big traffic you have, how many messages of data of a type you have, etc."

"We run a containerized microservices environment. Being able to set up streams and search for errors and anomalies across hundreds of containers is why a log aggregation platform like Graylog is valuable to us."

"Everything stands out as valuable, including the fact that I can quantify and qualify the logs, create pipelines and process the logs in any way I like, and create charts or data maps."

"The solution's most valuable feature is its new interface."

"The ability to write custom alerts is key to information security and compliance."

"I am very proud of how very stable the solution is."

"It has data adapters and lookup tables that utilize HTTP calls to APIs."

"Graylog is valuable because it bridges technical knowledge to non-technical teams, presenting complex backend processes in a simple timeline."

More Graylog Enterprise pros

"The functionality of Logstash is quite easy to implement and the plugin ecosystem of Logstash is great, with plugins for shell script monitoring and SQL monitoring working well with the tool."

"Everything aligns well with improving our organization."

"The transformation means we ship the logs in the way that we want them to be presented in Kibana, which is the main function we use Logstash for."

"Logstash has numerous plugins for inputs and outputs, allowing it to work well in environments that do not contain other Elastic components."

"We have three or four Logstash servers for high availability."

"I can collect logs from various data sources, including hardware."

Cons

"Over six months, I had two similar issues where searches were performed on field "messages". It exhausted all the memory of the ES node causing an ES crash and a Graylog halt."

"Since container orchestration systems are popular and Graylog fits the niche well, perhaps they could officially support running in docker containers on Kubernetes as a StatefulSet as a use case. That way, the declarative nature of Kubernetes config files would document their best case deployment scenario-"

"Graylog can improve the index rotation as it's quite a complex solution."

"More complex visualizations and the ability to execute custom Elasticsearch queries would be great."

"Dashboards, stream alerts and parsing could be improved."

"When it comes to configuring the processing pipeline, writing the rules can be very tedious, especially since the documentation isn't extensive on how the functions provided for these rules work."

"The infrastructure cost is the main issue. I like the rest. If the infrastructure costs could be lower, it would be fantastic."

"Graylog needs to improve their authentication. Also, the fact that Graylog displays logs from the top down is just ridiculous."

More Graylog Enterprise cons

"Elastic does not provide proper support for Logstash worldwide, and I rate their technical support as one out of ten."

"An enhancement we could implement is the ability to cluster Logstash to exist in more than one node."

"We still have a problem with importing the log system."

"There can be a UI to implement with Logstash. Currently, I have to work with config files and everything."

"Almost all the research can be very bad. We still have a problem with importing the log system."

"The product needs to improve its compatibility."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's an open-source solution that can be used free of charge."

"We are using the free version of the product. However, the paid version is expensive."

"Graylog is a free open-source solution. The free version has a capacity limitation of 2 GB daily, if you want to go above this you have to purchase a license."

"It's open source and free. They have a paid version, but we never looked into that because we never needed the features of the paid version."

"We're using the Community edition."

"If you want something that works and do not have the money for Splunk or QRadar, take Graylog."

"You get a lot out-of-the-box with the non-enterprise version, so give it a try first."

"Having paid official support is wise for projects."

More Graylog Enterprise pricing and cost advice

Information not available

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

15%

Comms Service Provider

10%

University

Government

Financial Services Firm

18%

Computer Software Company

10%

Real Estate/Law Firm

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	9
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	8

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Graylog?

The product is scalable. The solution is stable.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Graylog?

I am not familiar with the pricing details of Graylog, as I was not responsible for that aspect. It was determined that we didn't need an enterprise plan, which is more suited for clients with less...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Graylog?

An improvement I would suggest is in Graylog's user interface, such as allowing for font size adjustments. A potential enhancement could be the integration with Ollama to run large language models ...

See all answers

What do you like most about Logstash?

I can collect logs from various data sources, including hardware.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Logstash?

Customization can be automated with Logstash, but it is at the developer's disposal. The developer has to do it, not the tool as such. There is scope for optimization, but that is all outside the t...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Logstash?

The purposes for which I am using Logstash largely include log aggregation and application monitoring.

See all answers

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Compared 3% of the time

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Compared 34% of the time

Grafana Loki vs Logstash

Compared 17% of the time

syslog-ng vs Logstash

Compared 14% of the time

Wazuh vs Logstash

Compared 12% of the time

NXLog Platform vs Logstash

Compared 5% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Graylog Enterprise

December 2025

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Buyer's Guide

Log Management

December 2025

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Also Known As

Graylog2

No data available

Overview

Graylog Enterprise, recognized for log collection, real-time search, and enriched data handling, offers an open-source framework that integrates seamlessly with Elasticsearch. Its user-centric interface streamlines data correlation and log aggregation, supporting both backend services and comprehensive monitoring needs.

Graylog Enterprise stands out for its stability and powerful log management capabilities, facilitating efficient log aggregation, real-time updates, and data analytics. Users benefit from its plugin-based alerting, user-friendly interface, and support for microservices, including Docker integration. The ability to search in detail, flexible API integration, and data enrichment features are highly valued. Challenges include collector application issues, desired visualization enhancements, and authentication integration improvements. Users seek advancements in UI customization, backup functions, and easier rule creation.

What are Graylog Enterprise's most important features?

Log Collection: Efficiently aggregates and handles diverse logs.
Real-Time Search: Provides immediate log data access.
Custom Alerts: Plugin-based alerting for tailored notifications.
Dashboard Enhancements: Improved visualization for data insights.
Data Enrichment: Adds value through detailed log analysis.

What benefits and ROI can users expect?

Audit Trail Support: Essential for compliance in financial sectors.
Security Event Correlation: Enables incident analysis and response.
Faster Issue Identification: Speeds up troubleshooting with detailed visualization.
API Flexibility: Seamless integration across systems and environments.
Comprehensive Monitoring: Centralized log management enhances oversight.

In industrial use, Graylog Enterprise is crucial for audit trailing in financial sectors, facilitating security event identification and error monitoring. Backend teams leverage real-time analytics for swift issue resolution, while developers appreciate the comprehensive log visualization enabled by Docker integration for microservice management.

Graylog

Logstash is a versatile data processing pipeline that ingests data from multiple sources, transforms it, and sends it to preferred destinations, enabling seamless data utilization across systems.

Logstash provides an efficient and flexible way to manage data flow, supporting diverse input sources and offering a rich set of plugins. Its real-time processing capability and ease of integration with Elasticsearch make it advantageous for businesses looking to enhance data analytics. While valuable, Logstash can benefit from improvements like scalability enhancements and more robust error-handling mechanisms.

What are the key features of Logstash?

Input Plugin Support: Connects to a wide range of data sources for seamless ingestion.
Filter Plugin: Processes and enriches logs before output.
Output Plugin Flexibility: Delivers data to various endpoints efficiently.
Real-Time Pipeline: Processes data in real-time for immediate insights.

What benefits does Logstash provide?

Enhanced Data Processing: Streamlines data ingestion and transformation workflows.
Improved Analytics: Facilitates deeper insights through seamless Elasticsearch integration.
Cost Efficiency: Reduces total expenses by optimizing data handling processes.
Scalability: Adapts to diverse data volumes and use cases.

Industries like finance and e-commerce leverage Logstash for managing extensive log data and improving decision-making by feeding enriched data into analytics platforms. Its ability to handle diverse formats and integrate with Elastic Stack has proven crucial in implementing comprehensive data strategies.

Elastic

Sample Customers

Blue Cross Blue Shield, eBay, Cisco, LinkedIn, SAP, King.com, Twilio, Deutsche Presse-Agentur

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

Graylog Enterprise vs. Logstash

December 2025

Free Report: Graylog Enterprise vs. Logstash

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