Graylog Enterprise vs Splunk Enterprise Security comparison

Graylog and Splunk are both solutions in the Log Management category. Graylog is ranked #15 with an average rating of 7.0, while Splunk is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.3. Graylog holds a 6.2% mindshare in Log Management, compared to Splunk’s 7.6% mindshare. Additionally, 95% of Graylog users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of Splunk users who would recommend it.

Graylog Enterprise

Read 21 Graylog Enterprise reviews

8,755 Views
8,755 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Splunk Enterprise Security

Read 366 Splunk Enterprise Security reviews

24,756 Views
14,111 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

Graylog Enterprise

Splunk Enterprise Security

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 8, 2025

Splunk Enterprise Security and Graylog Enterprise both operate in the domain of log management and data analytics. Based on feature depth, Splunk appears to have an upper hand, boasting extensive capabilities, especially for large-scale operations.

Features: Splunk Enterprise Security provides robust features including log aggregation, log management, and advanced threat hunting. It integrates seamlessly with various tools, supports large-scale operations, and offers comprehensive data analytics. In contrast, Graylog Enterprise focuses on simplicity and is open-source, offering core functionalities like log management and basic search capabilities, making it user-friendly and affordable.

Room for Improvement: Splunk is critiqued for its high costs, complex data processing, and the need for better user interface updates. Archival data management and AI integrations are additional areas for enhancement. Meanwhile, Graylog needs improvements in alerting and visualization capabilities, with users desiring more intuitive dashboards and flexible alert thresholds.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Splunk supports wide-ranging deployments across on-premises and cloud setups but comes with a steep learning curve and a complex initial setup. Customer support is mixed, with reports of delays. Graylog is straightforward to deploy, especially on-premises, but relies heavily on community support, which can be challenging for users needing immediate assistance.

Pricing and ROI: Splunk's pricing is based on data volume, which can be prohibitive to smaller organizations despite extensive capabilities justifying the cost for larger entities. Graylog, being open-source, is more cost-effective, offering a reasonable ROI for smaller organizations needing efficient log management without the extensive features of Splunk.

To learn more, read our detailed Graylog Enterprise vs. Splunk Enterprise Security Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Graylog Enterprise vs. Splunk Enterprise Security

September 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

Splunk Enterprise Security

Ranking in Log Management

2nd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

366

Ranking in other categories

Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) (1st), IT Operations Analytics (1st)

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 Splunk Enterprise Security is 7.6%, down from 9.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Log Management Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Splunk Enterprise Security	7.6%
Graylog	6.2%
Other	86.2%

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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Kyle Vernham

Threat Analyst at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

Built-in searches and unified data access streamline alert investigation and boosts analyst efficiency

The two features I appreciate the most in Splunk Enterprise Security are the built-in searches, which have been very easy for us to get started with right out of the box, and the fact that it accesses all of our other systems. You can access it as a pane of glass rather than having to search individually. We also have the option to compare our analysts from our service to service. Splunk Enterprise Security helps our SOC team prioritize and investigate high-fidelity alerts more effectively by providing a more in-depth look and the ability to access a lot more of our data. Instead of jumping from several segmented systems, it allows us to have everything brought together in one place. For example, you have to move from our purview to our build system and to Splunk Enterprise Security, and it enables us to streamline that process. The built-in features of Splunk Enterprise Security, which we recently procured, have given us a good starting point and demonstrated the value of the product, providing an easy way to sell it to our company. The ease of getting everything into our purview helps us, and it serves as a good start for the investigation part in one location rather than what we usually have, which is jumping from system to system to system. Splunk Enterprise Security plays a role in our company's strategy to combat insider threats and advanced persistent threats by currently being in its technical test phase. We are still rolling it out, and it should help us find any insider threats based on information that our policy states should not be present in our system. Splunk Enterprise Security's risk-based alerting (RBA) has impacted our alert volume and analyst productivity because we've got many different systems feeding into it. However, it has helped to make it easier for our analysts to go through a set of events rather than 100 alerts. RBA allows us to streamline the process and customize it for our analysts. When it comes to leveraging Splunk Enterprise Security's dashboards and visualizations to communicate security posture to executives, it's pretty straightforward for any type of information. The visualization is easy to understand, but I haven't had any direct conversations with our executives.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

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

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

"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."

"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."

"Real-time UDP/GELF logging and full text-based searching."

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

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

More Graylog Enterprise pros

"My security ops team takes around 30 minutes to one hour to remediate security incidents with Splunk Enterprise Security compared to a previous solution."

"Combating insider threats and advanced persistent threats is an amazing feature of Splunk Enterprise Security, and it gives us the visibility that we need for those detections that other software doesn't have."

"Splunk's interface is user-friendly, and it has apps and add-ons for most applications. We can easily normalize the data to make it readable and understand the logs. We easily get all the field extractions and enrichment done by using the apps and add-ons. This helps us understand the application logs because the raw data is useless unless we extract some useful information from it. These add-ons make it so much easier."

"The solution is the market leader."

"It is easy to use, and easy to implement."

"Splunk has give us the capability to easily track problems and their status."

"We can ingest and correlate data from virtually any type of system."

"Recently, Splunk upgraded to version 9.0.02, which includes excellent data dashboards and visualization effects."

More Splunk Enterprise Security pros

Cons

"Its scalability gets complicated when we have to update or edit multiple nodes."

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

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

"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."

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

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

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

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

More Graylog Enterprise cons

"Splunk Enterprise Security could be improved by having better role-based access controls."

"The tool itself is very difficult to configure. It's great for its number of inputs, for the different types of systems devices, and things that it could collect information from. To actually make good use of it, you need a fairly dedicated team of people that have some reasonably good programming or modeling skills to be able to do the things that you need to do with it. Whereas a lot of the other tools are better packaged for that, and so require a lot less training and a lot less dedication."

"It would be nice if Splunk provided a little more documentation and instructions on how to upload. The steps are short, but sometimes it's not so intuitive."

"I would like to see ability to master management. In terms of clustering, how it manages clustering needs improvement."

"While Splunk Enterprise Security is powerful, it presents significant complexity for users, as it's not particularly user-friendly for beginners."

"We're planning to incorporate UBA and SOAR. It would be good to have everything in one place."

"It is important to make sure that everything is built off of the threat models and all the underlying items within Splunk."

"While there aren't any major areas where the solution has to be improved, there are certain integrations that are still not available. I would specifically like to see legacy applications integrated."

More Splunk Enterprise Security cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We're using the Community edition."

"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."

"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."

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

"Having paid official support is wise for projects."

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

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

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

More Graylog Enterprise pricing and cost advice

"Price-wise, if you compare QRadar to Splunk for SIEM functionality then they are in the same range but when you integrate SOAR with these solutions, Splunk takes the lead and is more competitive."

"Some of the insights that we have obtained as a part of using Splunk have greatly helped us in increasing our revenue in terms of selling our products."

"Luckily, we come under a large federal agency, and before the pandemic, they signed a large enterprise license agreement. It worked out great and to our advantage because we are a small organization. We got a 300 gig license, and we just did not have the buying power to be able to get products cheaply. Because we all partnered together under the agency umbrella, we were able to get Splunk Enterprise Security, UBA, and ITSI for cheap. This was good considering the fact that some of these premium apps require a minimum number of users, and we do not have the number of people needed to even justify buying it."

"Splunk differs from other SIEM solutions by using a gigabyte-based pricing model, rather than the agent-based licenses common with its competitors."

"Splunk Enterprise Security is an expensive solution."

"The Splunk Enterprise Security license is expensive."

"It would be nice if the pricing were cheaper. However, we did purchase it."

"Splunk Enterprise Security is not a cheap product, but I think it is worth every dollar that you pay."

More Splunk Enterprise Security pricing and cost advice

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Comparison Review

Vinod Shankar

Manager, Enterprise Risk Consulting at Deloitte & Touche

Feb 26, 2015

HP ArcSight vs. IBM QRadar vs. McAfee Nitro vs. Splunk vs. RSA Security vs. LogRhythm

We at Infosecnirvana.com have done several posts on SIEM. After the Dummies Guide on SIEM, we are following it up with a SIEM Product Comparison – 101 deck. So, here it is for your viewing pleasure. Let me know what you think by posting your comments below. The key products compared here are…

Read full review

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

16%

Comms Service Provider

11%

Government

University

Computer Software Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

14%

Manufacturing Company

Government

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	109
Midsize Enterprise	49
Large Enterprise	255

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 ...

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What SOC product do you recommend?

For tools I’d recommend: -SIEM- LogRhythm -SOAR- Palo Alto XSOAR Doing commercial w/o both (or at least an XDR) is asking to miss details that are critical, and ending up a statistic. Also, rememb...

See all answers

What is a better choice, Splunk or Azure Sentinel?

It would really depend on (1) which logs you need to ingest and (2) what are your use cases Splunk is easy for ingestion of anything, but the charge per GB/Day Indexed and it gets expensive as log ...

See all answers

How does Splunk compare with Azure Monitor?

Splunk handles a high amount of data very well. We use Splunk to capture information and as an aggregator for monitoring information from different sources. Splunk is very good at alerting us if we...

See all answers

Comparisons

Grafana Loki vs Graylog Enterprise

Compared 32% of the time

Wazuh vs Graylog Enterprise

Compared 26% of the time

syslog-ng vs Graylog Enterprise

Compared 11% of the time

Security Onion vs Graylog Enterprise

Compared 6% of the time

Elastic Security vs Graylog Enterprise

Compared 2% of the time

More Graylog Enterprise Competitors

IBM Security QRadar vs Splunk Enterprise Security

Compared 8% of the time

Dynatrace vs Splunk Enterprise Security

Compared 7% of the time

Wazuh vs Splunk Enterprise Security

Compared 7% of the time

Datadog vs Splunk Enterprise Security

Compared 5% of the time

Security Onion vs Splunk Enterprise Security

Compared 4% of the time

More Splunk Enterprise Security Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Graylog Enterprise

September 2025

Download Graylog Enterprise product report

Buyer's Guide

Splunk Enterprise Security

August 2025

Download Splunk Enterprise Security product report

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

Splunk Enterprise Security delivers powerful log management, rapid searches, and intuitive dashboards, enhancing real-time analytics and security measures. Its advanced machine learning and wide system compatibility streamline threat detection and incident response across diverse IT environments.

Splunk Enterprise Security stands out in security operations with robust features like comprehensive threat intelligence and seamless data integration. Its real-time analytics and customizable queries enable proactive threat analysis and efficient incident response. Integration with multiple third-party feeds allows detailed threat correlation and streamlined data visualization. Users find the intuitive UI and broad compatibility support efficient threat detection while reducing false positives. Despite its strengths, areas such as visualization capabilities and integration processes with cloud environments need enhancement. Users face a high learning curve, and improvements in automation, AI, documentation, and training are desired to maximize its potential.

What Are the Key Features of Splunk Enterprise Security?

Log Management: Efficiently manages and organizes a vast amount of logs for better data handling.
Rapid Data Search: Quickly retrieves relevant data for fast decision-making.
Flexible Dashboards: Customizable dashboards provide clear data visualization.
Comprehensive Threat Intelligence: Offers detailed insights to preemptively defend against threats.
Real-Time Analytics: Analyzes data in real-time to enhance response times.
Integration with Third-Party Feeds: Streamlines information flow from multiple sources.

What Benefits Should Users Investigate in Reviews?

Efficient Incident Response: Enhances the ability to respond promptly to threats.
False Positive Reduction: Minimizes incorrect threat alarms, making monitoring more efficient.
Threat Detection Speed: Accelerates the identification and evaluation of security threats.
Cost-Effectiveness: Potential savings through better licensing options and operational efficiency.
User Adaptability: Enhancements in documentation and training resources aid in overcoming the learning curve.

In specific industries like finance and healthcare, Splunk Enterprise Security is instrumental for log aggregation, SIEM functionalities, and compliance monitoring. Companies leverage its capabilities for proactive threat analysis and response, ensuring comprehensive security monitoring and integration with various tools for heightened operational intelligence.

Splunk

Sample Customers

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

Splunk has more than 7,000 customers spread across over 90 countries. These customers include Telenor, UniCredit, ideeli, McKenney's, Tesco, and SurveyMonkey.

Buyer's Guide

Graylog Enterprise vs. Splunk Enterprise Security

September 2025

Free Report: Graylog Enterprise vs. Splunk Enterprise Security

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