Amazon CloudWatch Logs vs Kiwi Syslog Server
Amazon CloudWatch Logs
aws.amazon.comKiwi Syslog Server
solarwinds.comSide by side
| Figure | Amazon CloudWatch Logs | Kiwi Syslog Server |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $0.03/mo | $999/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 5 | 3 |
| Spec score · Log Management Software | 9.2 (#5) | 8.9 (#14) |
| Archive export | Yes | Yes |
| Deployment options | cloud | self-hosted |
| Founded | 2006 | 1999 |
| Free plan | No | Yes |
| Integrations | CloudWatch Logs integrates with Amazon OpenSearch Service for querying and analyzing logs without moving or duplicating the data. | SolarWinds lists Loggly, Network Performance Monitor, Papertrail, Security Event Manager, and Splunk as integrations. |
| Live Tail | Live Tail provides interactive real-time analysis of streaming log data from a central view. | Yes |
| Log pipelines | Yes | Yes |
| Purpose | Amazon CloudWatch collects and stores logs from AWS resources, applications, services, on-premises resources, and other clouds. | Kiwi Syslog Server is on-premises software for managing syslog messages, SNMP traps, and Windows event logs. |
Plans
Amazon CloudWatch Logs
- Logs data ingestion$0.50 a month
- Logs archive storage$0.03 a month
- Pay-as-you-goPrice not published
- Free tierFree
- Paid usagePrice not published
Kiwi Syslog Server
- Free EditionFree
- Licensed Edition$999 a month
- Kiwi Syslog Server Licensed Edition$999, paid once
In their own words
Amazon CloudWatch Logs
Amazon CloudWatch Logs collects and stores logs from AWS resources, applications, services, on-premises systems, and other clouds. It offers log pipelines, structured parsing, archive export, and live tailing through web and API access. Logs Insights lets users query records with filters, aggregations, and regular expressions, then visualize time-series data or export results to CloudWatch Dashboards. Logs are available in Standard for real-time monitoring and advanced analytics, or Infrequent Access for ad-hoc queries and forensic analysis. Live Tail provides a central interactive view of streaming logs, while anomaly detection uses machine learning to identify patterns and changes. Users can search and analyze logs across accounts from a monitoring account at no additional cost. The free tier includes 5 GB for ingestion, archive storage, and query scans, plus 1,800 Live Tail minutes per month. Usage-based charges are billed at month end, with no upfront commitment or minimum fee; rates vary by Region.
Kiwi Syslog Server
Kiwi Syslog Server is self-hosted software for collecting and managing syslog messages, SNMP traps, and Windows event logs in a central console. It gathers data from network devices and Linux, UNIX, and Windows systems, with filters for hostname, IP address, priority, time, source, and message text. Rules can send email alerts, run scripts, forward messages, or write logs to files or ODBC databases. Its scheduler can archive and clean up logs, including compressing, encrypting, moving, renaming, and deleting them. SolarWinds lists integrations including Loggly, Network Performance Monitor, Papertrail, Security Event Manager, and Splunk. Kiwi Syslog Server NG supports secure TCP syslog using TLS and certificate-based server authentication. The complete trial runs for 14 days without a credit card. The listed Free Edition is free, but SolarWinds currently marks it “Coming Soon”; it is limited to five network devices, a 500 message buffer, and 10 display windows. The Licensed Edition is listed at $999, paid once.