Logstash vs Splunk Enterprise Security comparison

Elastic and Splunk are both solutions in the Log Management category. Elastic is ranked #24 with an average rating of 9.0, while Splunk is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.3. Elastic holds a 0.7% mindshare in Log Management, compared to Splunk’s 7.7% mindshare. Additionally, 75% of Elastic users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 93% of Splunk users who would recommend it.

Logstash

Read 5 Logstash reviews

836 Views
836 Comparison Views

75% willing to recommend

Splunk Enterprise Security

Read 369 Splunk Enterprise Security reviews

23,960 Views
13,418 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

Logstash

Splunk Enterprise Security

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 13, 2025

Splunk Enterprise Security and Logstash are in the data management and analysis category. Splunk has the upper hand in security management features, while Logstash is preferred for data parsing flexibility.

Features: Splunk Enterprise Security offers advanced threat detection, strong security integrations, and rapid incident response with centralized management. It supports schema-on-read technology and a versatile Search Processing Language. Logstash excels in real-time data processing, seamless integration with Elasticsearch, and powerful ETL capabilities, making it highly adaptable.

Room for Improvement: Splunk could enhance deployment simplicity and reduce total cost of ownership. Improvements in flexible pricing models may attract more users. For Logstash, enhancing user support and documentation could assist less technical users. Better integration with other security tools can increase its security capabilities. User interface improvements would make it easier to navigate complex configurations.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Splunk Enterprise Security supports extensive documentation and customer service options, though deployment can be complex due to its wide feature set. Logstash, being open-source, provides customization flexibility but may require greater technical expertise for deployment and troubleshooting. Splunk offers a more seamless support experience.

Pricing and ROI: Splunk involves higher initial costs but offers significant ROI through its comprehensive security and analytics capabilities. While it is more expensive, the value is seen in its efficiency and advanced offerings. Logstash, as an open-source tool, presents a lower initial setup cost, appealing to businesses aiming for cost-effectiveness. Its ROI varies based on technical investment for optimal deployment.

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

Buyer's Guide

Logstash 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

Logstash

Ranking in Log Management

24th

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

5.6

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

7.3

Number of Reviews

369

Ranking in other categories

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

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Log Management category, the mindshare of Logstash is 0.7%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Splunk Enterprise Security is 7.7%, down from 9.1% 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	7.7%
Logstash	0.7%
Other	91.6%

Log Management

Featured Reviews

PRANIL CHANDARKAR

Associate Consultant at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Open-source accessibility and ease of implementation empower adaptable log management

As both a customer and an integrator, I think the best features in Logstash are that people prefer it because it is open to all, as it is an open-source version. The functionality of Logstash is quite easy to implement. I can say that the plugin ecosystem of Logstash is great. I have used some plugins for shell script monitoring and for SQL monitoring, and these are all working well with Logstash. The real-time processing capabilities of Logstash are also pretty fine with the tool. When I use the community edition, I have to do many things manually. If I am using enterprise Elastic, then that is taken care of by the Elastic native machine learning.

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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

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

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

"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."

"Everything aligns well with improving our organization."

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

"The most valuable feature of Splunk Enterprise Security is the threat intelligence integration because essentially having to go out and correlate all the data on our own becomes convoluted."

"I like the ease with which dashboards can be created."

"Capability to expand the functionality through custom code for data inputs, commands, visualization, alerts, and machine learning."

"I like the ease of setting up dashboards on Splunk. They're easy to create, manage, alter, and share. You can fine-tune them any way you see fit."

"It allows for transparency into IT metrics for insightful business analytics."

"Splunk Enterprise Security scales well with the growing needs of our company."

"Splunk Enterprise Security is doing its job in helping improve my organization's business resilience."

"It helps us uncover bottlenecks in the network."

More Splunk Enterprise Security pros

Cons

"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."

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

"The product needs to improve its compatibility."

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

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

"One of the improvement points that Enterprise Security could offer is on-prem training, the availability to have a Splunk representative come out to different sites and actually sit down with the organizations and help them understand."

"Its pricing model and integration with third-party services can be improved. We had faced an issue with integration. The alerting feature is currently not available with Splunk, but it is definitely available with Datadog and PagerDuty. They should include this feature. A few dashboards in Splunk look quite old and are not that modern. They aren't bad, but improving these dashboards will definitely make Splunk more attractive and usable. I read in a few blog posts that there were a few security incidents related to Splunk agents. So, it can be made more secure."

"Both quality and speed are lacking. Quality-wise, tickets sometimes go in circles, with unnecessary complications and escalations requiring repeated explanations."

"Splunk Enterprise Security can be improved with better triage capability and less dependency on running SPL searches, which would allow analysts who may not have much experience in writing SPL searches to still use the tool and run investigations."

"The administration of the cluster and app deployment to indexers or search heads can be done only using ssh access and command line, there is no GUI tools for that."

"Being a SIEM solution with a centralized dashboard, we would like to have more options to customize it."

"We find that the maintenance process could be a lot better."

"The CIM model is the method Splunk uses to normalize data and categorize its important parts, but it is quite complex."

More Splunk Enterprise Security cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"The pricing could be made 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."

"The pricing is based on the volume of data fed into it, which can lead to substantial costs. This pricing model is complex and unpredictable, making cost management difficult."

"Splunk is definitely not a cheap solution. It is an expensive product."

"The pricing seems good relative to the other vendors that we have had here. However, they need to find ways to be more flexible with the licensing and be able to deal with situations where we start generating more logs. Maybe having some controls in the Splunk interface to turn it off, so we don't have to change anything in our application."

"Splunk Enterprise Security is an expensive solution."

"The variables and the flexibility that Splunk provides are helpful, especially in a hybrid and multi-cloud environment."

"Splunk Enterprise Security is a worthwhile investment given the comprehensive range of features it offers."

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

Financial Services Firm

16%

Computer Software Company

12%

Government

University

Computer Software Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

14%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	110
Midsize Enterprise	50
Large Enterprise	257

Questions from the Community

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

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

Cribl vs Logstash

Compared 39% of the time

Grafana Loki vs Logstash

Compared 18% of the time

syslog-ng vs Logstash

Compared 17% of the time

Wazuh vs Logstash

Compared 14% of the time

Graylog Enterprise vs Logstash

Compared 12% of the time

More Logstash Competitors

IBM Security QRadar vs Splunk Enterprise Security

Compared 8% of the time

Dynatrace vs Splunk Enterprise Security

Compared 6% of the time

Wazuh vs Splunk Enterprise Security

Compared 6% 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

Log Management

October 2025

Download Logstash product report

Buyer's Guide

Splunk Enterprise Security

September 2025

Download Splunk Enterprise Security product report

Overview

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

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

Information Not Available

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

Logstash vs. Splunk Enterprise Security

September 2025

Free Report: Logstash vs. Splunk Enterprise Security

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