Graylog vs Nagios Log Server comparison

Graylog and Nagios are both solutions in the Log Management category. Graylog is ranked #16 with an average rating of 6.5, while Nagios is ranked #34 with an average rating of 8.0. Graylog holds a 6.7% mindshare in Log Management, compared to Nagios’s 0.8% mindshare. Additionally, 95% of Graylog users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Nagios users who would recommend it.

Graylog

Read 20 Graylog reviews

9,555 Views
8,400 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Nagios Log Server

Read 4 Nagios Log Server reviews

1,300 Views
1,108 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Graylog

Nagios Log Server

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 9, 2024

Graylog and Nagios Log Server both compete in the monitoring solution category, each catering to specific user needs. Based on user satisfaction and feature set analysis, Graylog is perceived to have the upper hand in user satisfaction due to competitive pricing and support, while Nagios Log Server stands out with its robust feature set despite higher costs.

Features: Graylog is favored for its real-time data processing, intuitive setup, and flexible data parsing. It excels in advanced search functionalities and managing large data volumes. Nagios Log Server stands out for centralized management, extensive monitoring capabilities, and configurable alerts that provide control and compliance.

Room for Improvement: Users of Graylog suggest improvements in visualization tools, third-party integration, and scalability for enterprise environments. As for Nagios Log Server, there is a call for simpler configuration, enhanced automated alerting, and improved user guides for better usability.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Graylog is praised for its straightforward deployment and reliable customer support, which is beneficial for smaller teams. Nagios Log Server, despite a more complex setup, offers extensive documentation and helpful customer service, making it suitable for larger enterprises.

Pricing and ROI: Graylog is known for budget-friendly setup costs and significant ROI through resource allocation savings. It provides high value with its analytics capabilities. Nagios Log Server is seen as a worthwhile investment offering justified returns with its superior features, appealing to users with larger budgets.

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

Buyer's Guide

Graylog vs. Nagios Log Server

April 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

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

Nagios Log Server

Ranking in Log Management

34th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

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 Nagios Log Server is 0.8%, down from 0.8% 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.

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Syarul Idzuddin Adzmi

Operation Director at Digital Pulse Sdn Bhd

A scalable and affordable tool for monitoring data centers

Five engineers are needed for the maintenance of the product. I would definitely recommend the solution to those planning to use it. To increase the rating for the product, Nagios should offer remote support and offer more customization in reporting while making it easy for the customers to use it. Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

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

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

"This had increased productivity for the dev and support teams, because we are directly notifying them."

"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."

"Storing logs in Elasticsearch means log retrieval is extremely fast, and full text search is available by default."

"The best feature of Graylog is the Elasticsearch integration. We can integrate and we can run filters, such as an event of interest, and those logs we can send to any SIEM tool or as an analytic. Additionally, there are clear and well-documented implementation instructions on their website to follow if needed."

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

"Open source and user friendly."

"One of the most valuable features is that you are able to do a very detailed search through the log messages in the overview."

More Graylog pros

"A great feature of the solution involves its internal portal."

"The product is scalable."

"The initial setup of Nagios Log Server was easy and straightforward."

"One of the most valuable features is the dashboard because the UI was effective and easy to use. The alert systems are good as well. We had no failovers and had high availability. We can search the queries fast as well in Nagios Log Server."

Cons

"I would like to see a date and time in the Graylog Grok patterns so that I can save time when searching for a log. I like how the streams and the search query work, but adding a date and time will allow me to pull out a log in a milli-second."

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

"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."

"It would be great if Graylog could provide a better Python package in order to make it easier to use for the Python community."

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

"Lacks sufficient documentation."

"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."

More Graylog cons

"The customization and dashboards have shortcomings and need to be improved to make the tool look more presentable."

"The configurations during initial setup could be improved. If they could be agentless, as in the case of the Ansible product, it would be better. I would like to be able to analyze the network bandwidth."

"As we are talking about a product which is open to the public, the pricing makes it challenging for us to profit off of its marketing."

"The support could be better."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

"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."

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

"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."

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

"Having paid official support is wise for projects."

More Graylog pricing and cost advice

"We found the pricing to be quite affordable."

"For a single instance, the price is around $4,000."

"On a scale of one to ten, where one is expensive, and ten is cheap, I rate the pricing an eight or nine."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

18%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Educational Organization

Government

Computer Software Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

10%

University

Government

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 Nagios Log Server?

The initial setup of Nagios Log Server was easy and straightforward.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Nagios Log Server?

My company pays around 500 to 1,000 USD per year toward the licensing cost of the solution. For support, we need to pay extra to Nagios. The solution's price is low. On a scale of one to ten, where...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Nagios Log Server?

The customization and dashboards have shortcomings and need to be improved to make the tool look more presentable. The reporting side of the product should allow users to have more customized reports.

See all answers

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Compared 6% of the time

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Compared 4% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Graylog

April 2025

Download Graylog product report

Buyer's Guide

Nagios Log Server

April 2025

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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

Nagios Enterprises delivers official products, services, and solutions for and around Nagios – the industry standard in enterprise-grade IT infrastructure monitoring. With millions of users worldwide, Nagios is the undisputed champion in the IT monitoring space. Our team of dedicated professionals works to ensure total customer satisfaction with all the services we provide. Our extensive network of partners helps extend Nagios services and solutions to new organizations and markets worldwide to meet a variety of business needs. Nagios Enterprises was founded in 2007 by Ethan Galstad. Ethan created what would later become known as Nagios in 1999, and currently serves as the President of Nagios Enterprises.

Nagios

Sample Customers

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

IBM, impulse, wipro, comteco

Buyer's Guide

Graylog vs. Nagios Log Server

April 2025

Free Report: Graylog vs. Nagios Log Server

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