Google Cloud Logging vs Seq
Google Cloud Logging
cloud.google.com
Seq
datalust.coSide by side
| Figure | Google Cloud Logging | Seq |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $0.01/mo | $90.83/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 13 | 5 |
| Spec score · Log Management Software | 9.5 (#2) | 8.6 (#23) |
| Spec score · Log Monitoring Tools | 9.3 (#2) | 8.8 (#7) |
| Deployment options | cloud | Seq is self-hosted and supported on Windows or under Docker/Linux, and can be deployed on-premises or in a public cloud. |
| Integrations | Official integrations include Cloud Monitoring, Error Reporting, Cloud Trace, Pub/Sub, Cloud Storage and BigQuery. | Documented ingestion options include Serilog, Microsoft.Extensions.Logging, OpenTelemetry, Node.js libraries, HTTP, GELF, syslog, RabbitMQ, Docker and Kubernetes. |
| Public API | The Cloud Logging API supports reading and writing entries, creating log-based metrics and managing routing sinks. | Seq exposes a complete HTTP API for events, queries, apps and configuration, authenticated with API keys or cookies. |
| Purpose | Cloud Logging is a fully managed, real-time log management service for storage, search, analysis, and alerting at exabyte scale. | Seq is a self-hosted telemetry server that stores structured application events and makes them searchable through its web interface. |
| Self-hosting | Cloud Logging is documented as a managed Google service; the documentation provides agents and APIs for sending data rather than a self-hosted server distribution. | Seq runs on Windows or Docker/Linux and can be deployed on-premises or in public-cloud infrastructure. |
| Support | The product page directs customers who need help getting started to contact sales. | The Individual plan includes community support; paid plans include priority email support, and Datacenter includes a 45-minute onboarding call with the engineering team. |
| System requirements | Ops Agent installation requires a supported VM and operating system, authorized credentials, enabled Logging and Monitoring APIs, and no conflicting legacy agents. | Windows deployments require Windows 10 or later or Windows Server 2016 or later on a 64-bit machine. |
| What it does | Cloud Logging is a fully managed service for storing, searching, analyzing, monitoring and alerting on log data at very large scale. | Seq is a self-hosted, real-time server for searching and analyzing structured application logs, traces and metrics. |
Plans
Google Cloud Logging
- Logging storage (non-vended network logs)$0.50, paid once
- Vended network logs storage$0.25, paid once
- Logging retention beyond default period$0.01 a month
- Free allotmentFree
- Log AnalyticsFree
- Log RouterFree
- Logs RouterFree
- Extended retention$0.01 a month
- Logging retention$0.01 a month
- Vended network logs storage$0.25, paid once
Seq
- IndividualFree
- IndividualFree
- Team$1,090 a year
- Standard$2,990 a year
- Datacenter$10,990 a year
In their own words
Google Cloud Logging
Google Cloud Logging is a managed cloud service for storing, searching, analyzing and alerting on logs. Logs Explorer supports query-based searches, sorting, histogram views, field exploration and saved queries. Log Analytics uses BigQuery for SQL analysis, and log data can also be accessed in BigQuery alongside other business data. Google Cloud platform logs are ingested without setup; GKE workload logs are captured automatically, while the Ops Agent collects VM workload logs. Logs Router can send logs to external systems through Pub/Sub, and Cloud Storage can hold archives. Regional log buckets keep and process workload data in a selected region, with configurable access controls and retention. The service integrates with Cloud Monitoring, Error Reporting and Cloud Trace. Cloud Audit Logs records administrative activity and resource access, and its entries are immutable; the product page states 400 days of audit-log retention at no additional cost. Standard logging storage includes the first 50 GiB per project per month free, and new Google Cloud customers are offered $300 in credits. The listed deployment is cloud; platforms include API, Linux and web.