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Splunk Cloud Platform vs syslog-ng comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

Splunk Cloud Platform
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.0
Number of Reviews
58
Ranking in other categories
Data Visualization (2nd), IT Alerting and Incident Management (3rd)
syslog-ng
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
Log Management (18th)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Systems Management solutions, they serve different purposes. Splunk Cloud Platform is designed for Data Visualization and holds a mindshare of 0.9%, up 0.4% compared to last year.
syslog-ng, on the other hand, focuses on Log Management, holds 2.5% mindshare, down 2.8% since last year.
Data Visualization
Log Management
 

Featured Reviews

Ian Gatundu - PeerSpot reviewer
It improves our visibility and decision-making while helping us meet compliance standards
The Cloud Platform interface is cleaner than Splunk Enterprise's monitoring console. You can easily understand what's happening with your indexes. It's more refined than Splunk Enterprise's console, but they have the same feel and function. It's easy to monitor multiple cloud environments because you can create custom dashboards for any use case you may have. It offers good visibility because it integrates with the ITSI app, providing a clear overview of your environment. Integrating Splunk with other components on the cloud and network resources is effortless because it can collect data from various sources, including stored data from long-term storage. Splunk's reporting offers a good visualization of your data. You can visualize the statistics based on your searches. It produces some helpful graphs that enable you to easily compare what's happening in your search. It's very comprehensive.
RyanVargas - PeerSpot reviewer
It's a user-friendly open-source solution that can replace or augment a commercial product in some cases
I rate syslog-ng 10 out of 10. It's free and easy to use. It has built-in tools that help us index the various logs sent to it. It's a solid log product. If you're looking for a SIEM solution, syslog-ng will work as a stopgap measure at beginning of the project. It can also work as an injector for a true SIEM solution. You can send all the logs to syslog-ng and forward all the data to the SIEM solution after you've cleaned up the data and got the pertinent information. It's a good front end for a commercial SIEM solution, which becomes more expensive as you load more data into it. I would highly recommend syslog-ng for that use case. However, if you lack the expertise, you might need to go with a cloud-based SIEM instead. You need some in-house expertise or an outside consultant to manage it and set it up.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It's made searching for data easier. Users like it. We're still in the migration process, but overall, it's a lot easier to use."
"We only buy the services we need. We don't have to pay for other things we don't."
"Splunk Cloud Platform's most valuable features are enterprise security and ticketing integration."
"I like the idea of being able to list the IPs that we want without having to open up a ticket to get it done so that way if anything changes we can add a new IP."
"It is a stable product."
"The log search capabilities are very good."
"The solution is user friendly and has extensive uses."
"It has end-to-end visibility into our cloud-native environment, which is pretty important for us. About 80% of our infrastructure is on AWS."
"The ability to extract and store the logs is the most valuable feature of syslog-ng."
"Syslog-ng has built-in features that we can use to create alerts for a SIEM solution. It isn't a true SIEM solution, but it's sufficient for the time being."
"For us, the most valuable feature is the use of compound search for searching logs at a specific time, by a specific user, or specific behavior."
"Syslog-ng has a separate config file in addition to the core configuration."
"Syslog-ng provides easy access to all my logs. It helps me show managers and other clients precisely where an incident occurred. I also like it because you can integrate syslog-ng with multiple solutions to allow real-time monitoring."
 

Cons

"The pricing model makes the product costly."
"It would be nice to see more comparisons between Splunk and other log management tools. There are some legacy tools that people are often coming off. It will ease the transition if you are coming off a Windows LogViewer or any other logging tool. Splunk could offer more advice on how to transition into it or onboard it."
"Splunk should increase the frequency of new feature releases, particularly those related to real-time operational flow monitoring and analytics reporting."
"Splunk Cloud's SVC licensing model lacks transparency."
"Since I work on data collection from external sources and send them into Splunk, I miss its ability to collect that data through REST API applications."
"The security connection should have a seamless integration. Other than that, the way we are using it, so far, it seems quite good."
"We're interested in learning more about the new AI features, especially the natural language to SPL conversion."
"I would love to be able to manage my own apps."
"There is room for improvement in terms of observability."
"The filtering has room for improvement."
"Syslog-ng has built-in features that we can use to create alerts for a SIEM solution. It isn't a true SIEM solution, but it's sufficient for the time being."
"It's hard to find people who know how to use syslog-ng. I often find problems with configurations, and solutions aren't integrated correctly with syslog-ng. For example, there might be data with extra decimals, or the collector agents are incorrectly named. It isn't a problem with the solution; it's a lack of professionals."
"There is always the potential for additional integration and protocol extensions."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There are additional features that you would need to purchase depending on your use case."
"As far as the pricing goes, it was what was expected. It is a premium product. There were no surprises there."
"The Splunk Cloud Platform is expensive."
"The pricing was negotiated through Trustwave and for our first contract in three years, we got a good deal."
"The price is something that people complain about."
"I do not know what that is anymore. I have not been involved with that for a couple of years, but I know we are paying a lot."
"I do not have much idea. We previously used 1 GB at the cost of $600. Both on-prem and cloud licenses have the same price. There is no difference. It did not impact the cost because the costs of the on-prem license and the cloud license are the same. We did not have any issues with that. Overall, its price is reasonable."
"Splunk Cloud Platform's pricing is a little on the higher end."
"Syslog-ng is open-source."
"Syslog-ng is a free open-source solution."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
30%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Retailer
5%
Manufacturing Company
5%
Government
13%
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Splunk Cloud Platform?
Splunk has sped up our response and reduced the time we spend manually monitoring any logs for ticketing tools or servers. It saves us around two hours daily.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Splunk Cloud Platform?
If I were to rate the price for the product from 1 to 10, I would rate it nine.
What needs improvement with Splunk Cloud Platform?
The disadvantage of Splunk Cloud Platform is that its integration process should be improved. The challenges I have encountered while integrating Splunk Cloud Platform include that integration is a...
What do you like most about syslog-ng?
For us, the most valuable feature is the use of compound search for searching logs at a specific time, by a specific user, or specific behavior.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for syslog-ng?
The pricing is in the middle. I would rate the pricing a six out of ten, with one being expensive and ten being cheap.
What needs improvement with syslog-ng?
There is room for improvement in terms of observability. Additionally, a possible new feature could be Kafka integration.
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Mindtouch
Tecnocom, University of Victoria, University of Exeter, Datapath
Find out what your peers are saying about Splunk Cloud Platform vs. syslog-ng and other solutions. Updated: March 2023.
858,327 professionals have used our research since 2012.