Graylog vs Logstash comparison

Graylog and Elastic are both solutions in the Log Management category. Graylog is ranked #16 with an average rating of 6.5, while Elastic is ranked #33 with an average rating of 9.0. Graylog holds a 6.7% mindshare in Log Management, compared to Elastic’s 0.5% mindshare. Additionally, 95% of Graylog users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 50% of Elastic users who would recommend it.

Graylog

Read 20 Graylog reviews

9,555 Views
8,400 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Logstash

Read 3 Logstash reviews

621 Views
550 Comparison Views

50% willing to recommend

Graylog

Logstash

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Graylog and Logstash based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Log Management solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

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

Buyer's Guide

Graylog vs. Logstash

April 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 849,686 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

Graylog

Ranking in Log Management

16th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Logstash

Ranking in Log Management

33rd

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Log Management category, the mindshare of Graylog is 6.7%, up from 5.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Logstash is 0.5%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

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

Mustafa Husny

Senior System Engineer at Techline-eg

Helps to collect logs from various data sources, including hardware

I use Logstash primarily for connecting logs from hardware. This is the main use case. The second use case involves making correlations between logs from various sources. I can collect logs from various data sources, including hardware. The product needs to improve its compatibility. I rate…

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

"We have scaled from a single machine installation (a VM with a Graylog + ES + MongoDB) to (2 Graylog + 2 ES + 3 MongoDB). This was done smoothly with a minimal impact on logging."

"Open source and user friendly."

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

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

"UDP is a fast and lightweight protocol, perfect for sending large volumes of logs with minimal overhead."

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

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

"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."

More Graylog pros

"Everything aligns well with improving our organization."

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

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

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

Cons

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

"More customization is always useful."

"Elasticsearch recommendations for tuning could be better. Graylog doesn't have direct support for running the system inside of Kubernetes, so it can be challenging to fill in the gaps and set up containers in a way that is both performant and stable."

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

"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."

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

"With technical support, you are on your own without an enterprise license."

"Graylog could improve the process of creating rules. We have to create them manually by doing parses and applying them. Other SIEM solutions have basic rules and you can create and get more events of interest."

More Graylog cons

"The product needs to improve its compatibility."

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

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

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

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"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."

"Having paid official support is wise for projects."

"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."

"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."

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

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

More Graylog pricing and cost advice

Information not available

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

18%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Educational Organization

Government

Financial Services Firm

18%

Computer Software Company

14%

Government

Educational Organization

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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?

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

See all answers

What needs improvement with Graylog?

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. P...

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?

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. Ch...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Logstash?

I am considered an expert in Elastic Observability ( /products/elastic-observability-reviews ) in the Middle East. During my experience, I have worked heavily on Logstash ( /products/logstash-38586...

See all answers

Comparisons

Grafana Loki vs Graylog

Compared 39% of the time

Wazuh vs Graylog

Compared 24% of the time

syslog-ng vs Graylog

Compared 11% of the time

Security Onion vs Graylog

Compared 5% of the time

Fortinet FortiAnalyzer vs Graylog

Compared 3% of the time

More Graylog Competitors

Cribl vs Logstash

Compared 42% of the time

Grafana Loki vs Logstash

Compared 20% of the time

syslog-ng vs Logstash

Compared 16% of the time

Wazuh vs Logstash

Compared 15% of the time

More Logstash Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Graylog

April 2025

Download Graylog product report

Buyer's Guide

Log Management

April 2025

Download Logstash product report

Also Known As

Graylog2

No data available

Overview

Graylog is purpose-built to deliver the best log collection, storage, enrichment, and analysis. Graylog is:

Considerably faster analysis speeds.
More robust and easier-to-use analysis platform.
Simpler administration and infrastructure management.
Lower cost than alternatives.
Full-scale customer service.
No expensive training or tool experts required.

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 vs. Logstash

April 2025

Free Report: Graylog vs. Logstash

Find out what your peers are saying about Graylog vs. Logstash and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.

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