Graylog Enterprise vs VMware Aria Operations for Logs comparison

Graylog and VMware are both solutions in the Log Management category. Graylog is ranked #15 with an average rating of 7.0, while VMware is ranked #13 with an average rating of 8.2. Graylog holds a 6.2% mindshare in Log Management, compared to VMware’s 1.3% mindshare. Additionally, 95% of Graylog users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of VMware users who would recommend it.

Graylog Enterprise

Read 21 Graylog Enterprise reviews

8,755 Views
8,755 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

VMware Aria Operations for ...

Read 28 VMware Aria Operations for Logs reviews

2,061 Views
2,040 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Graylog Enterprise

VMware Aria Operations for ...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 8, 2025

VMware Aria Operations for Logs and Graylog Enterprise are competitive solutions in log management. VMware Aria stands out in environments with substantial VMware systems due to its deep integration with VMware products, while Graylog Enterprise offers flexibility and customization, especially in open-source deployments.

Features: VMware Aria Operations for Logs integrates seamlessly with vSphere and vRealize, providing virtualization support, log analytics, and dashboards. It benefits users by simplifying management tasks within VMware infrastructures. Graylog Enterprise offers real-time log processing, built on open-source foundations, with Elasticsearch integration. Its ease in setting up alerts and searching logs is appreciated by users.

Room for Improvement: VMware Aria Operations for Logs could improve scalability and third-party integration while simplifying operations and licensing structures. Enhancements in user-friendliness and better documentation are desired. Graylog Enterprise needs to address challenges in retention policy management and infrastructure costs due to Elasticsearch dependency. Users suggest improvements in stream alerts and support for containerized environments.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: VMware Aria Operations for Logs predominantly offers on-premises deployment with reliable technical support, though responsiveness could improve. Graylog Enterprise supports both on-premises and hybrid cloud environments. Its open-source version minimizes costs but offers limited support. Users find the free version straightforward to deploy, though the enterprise support could be more individualized compared to VMware.

Pricing and ROI: VMware Aria Operations for Logs is viewed as expensive, especially for smaller businesses not heavily invested in VMware's suite, but can offer good ROI when extensively used. Graylog Enterprise's open-source nature is appealing for cost-effective solutions, yet scaling can increase costs due to infrastructure needs.

To learn more, read our detailed Graylog Enterprise vs. VMware Aria Operations for Logs Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Graylog Enterprise vs. VMware Aria Operations for Logs

July 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

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

VMware Aria Operations for ...

Ranking in Log Management

13th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Log Management category, the mindshare of Graylog Enterprise is 6.2%, up from 6.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware Aria Operations for Logs is 1.3%, up from 1.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Log Management Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
VMware Aria Operations for Logs	1.3%
Graylog	6.2%
Other	92.5%

Log Management

Featured Reviews

Ivan Kokalovic

DevOps Engineer at Proton Technologies

Facilitates backend service monitoring with efficient log retrieval and API flexibility

Graylog is valuable because it bridges technical knowledge to non-technical teams, presenting complex backend processes in a simple timeline. It boosts the knowledge of sales and customer support teams by allowing them to see the backend operations without needing to read the code. Its API is flexible for visualization, and its powerful search engine efficiently handles large volumes of log data. Moreover, its stability, fast search capabilities, and compatibility with languages like ANSI SQL enhance its utility in IT infrastructure.

Read full review

LarsChristensen

Advisory Solution Consultant at ServiceNow

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.

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

"Graylog is very handy."

"The product is scalable. The solution is stable."

"We're using the Community edition, but I know that it has really good dashboarding and alerts."

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

"I like the correlation and the alerting."

"The build is stable and requires little maintenance, even compared to some extremely expensive products."

"Message forwarding through the in-built module."

"It is used as a log manager/SIEM. It provides visibility into the infrastructure and security related events."

More Graylog Enterprise pros

"The interface of the solution is good."

"It allows us to gain a comprehensive overview of our infrastructure."

"Log Insight correlates with the VMware product log. It can assemble the logs you want, making it easier to find the output, incident, or keyword you want to search."

"The solution is quite user-friendly."

"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."

"The system's management and its alerts are the most valuable aspects of the solution."

"The root cause analysis feature is very valuable."

More VMware Aria Operations for Logs pros

Cons

"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-"

"We ran into problems with Elasticsearch throwing a circuit-breaking exception due to field data size being too large. It turned out that the heap size directly impacted this size in a high-throughput environment, causing unexplained instability in Graylog. We were able to troubleshoot on the Elasticsearch size, but we should have been able to reference some minimum requirements for Graylog to know that our settings weren't sufficient."

"There should be some user groups and an auto sign-in feature."

"I would like to see a default dashboard widget that shows the topology of the clusters defined for the graylog install."

"I would like to see some kind of visualization included in Graylog."

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

"I hope to see improvements in Graylog for more interactivity, user-friendliness, and creating alerts. The initial setup is complex."

"The biggest problem is the collector application, as we wanted to avoid using Graylog Collector Sidecar due to its architecture."

More Graylog Enterprise cons

"The solution is a very good tool, but it has a lot of limitations. One of the main issues is around how you define your retention policy, for instance, in Log Insight. It doesn't have it. You can't define a log retention policy. You also can't define the destination or location for your logs. All of the logs are in one index or one bucket."

"VMware Aria Operations for Logs is not a cost-effective tool. Additionally, it is expensive, especially given the current economic conditions in Turkey."

"The pricing of the solution could be improved."

"The tool could be cheaper."

"The tool does not provide a centralized pane for monitoring."

"Documentation is lacking, including some guide as to how to use the expressions. It is not clear how to look for a log, for example. Some examples in the documentation might be helpful. I think that VMware had good documentation, but it's no longer hosted. The documentation is not as easy to understand as it was before."

"The solution should be more user-friendly. The user interface and dashboard could be simplified."

"I don't use the solution on a day to day basis, so I'm not sure what specifically can be improved."

More VMware Aria Operations for Logs cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"I am using a community edition. I have not looked at the enterprise offering from Graylog."

"Having paid official support is wise for projects."

"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."

"Consider Enterprise support if you have atypical needs or setup requirements."

"There is an open source version and an enterprise version. I wouldn't recommend the enterprise version, but as an open source solution, it is solid and works really well."

"I use the free version of Graylog."

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

More Graylog Enterprise pricing and cost advice

"I think it is a reasonably priced product."

"It is not cheap. But it is worth it."

"Pricing could always be lower. If it were free, I would be more satisfied."

"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."

"Pricing is good because it is part of the suite package. It comes in a bundle for us."

"I am not sure what the exact cost is. However, I believe the vRealize suite costs $2,500.00 per year."

"I rate the product's price a six on a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive."

"The license cost for any other monitoring tool is too high compared to this product."

More VMware Aria Operations for Logs pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

16%

Comms Service Provider

11%

Government

University

Computer Software Company

12%

Government

12%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	8
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	7

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	7
Midsize Enterprise	9
Large Enterprise	12

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 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.

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Graylog Enterprise

August 2025

Download Graylog Enterprise product report

Buyer's Guide

VMware Aria Operations for Logs

August 2025

Download VMware Aria Operations for Logs product report

Also Known As

Graylog2

vRealize Log Insight

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

Manage data at scale with centralized log management, deep operational visibility and intelligent analytics for troubleshooting and auditing across private, hybrid and multi-cloud environments.

VMware

Sample Customers

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

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

Buyer's Guide

Graylog Enterprise vs. VMware Aria Operations for Logs

July 2025

Free Report: Graylog Enterprise vs. VMware Aria Operations for Logs

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