Grafana Loki vs syslog-ng
Grafana Loki
grafana.comsyslog-ng
syslog-ng.comSide by side
| Figure | Grafana Loki | syslog-ng |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $19/mo | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 5 | 6 |
| Spec score · Log Management Software | 9.4 (#3) | 9.1 (#11) |
| Spec score · Log Analysis Software | 9.1 (#4) | 8.6 (#6) |
| Documentation depth | The documentation covers architecture, deployment modes, configuration, ingestion clients, operations, multi-tenancy, LogQL, APIs, troubleshooting, upgrades and release notes. | The documentation center contains searchable administration and developer guides, contribution instructions, mailing-list support and GitHub issue tracking. |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Installation | Grafana documents installation using Helm, Tanka, Docker or Docker Compose, local installation, and source builds. | OSE can be installed from Debian/Ubuntu, RHEL, Fedora and Arch packages, official repositories, Docker images or source compilation. |
| Integrations | Official documentation lists Grafana Alloy as the recommended collector and describes OpenTelemetry, Promtail, Fluent Bit, Fluentd, Vector, Logstash and other clients. | The product pages list destinations and integrations including Elasticsearch, Hadoop, Kafka, MongoDB, SQL databases, Redis, Splunk, and SIEM tools. |
| License | Grafana states that Loki is released under the GNU Affero General Public License version 3. | The public project combines LGPL and GPL licensing: core reusable code is generally LGPL 2.1-or-later while many modules are GPLv2-or-later. |
| Limit: learning curve | TrustRadius reviewers report a steep learning curve, difficulty with long-term log insight and a need for better query suggestions and syntax checking. | Capterra reviewers say the configuration syntax takes time to learn, and one reviewer saw little extra functionality over basic operating-system syslog. |
| Purpose | Loki is a log aggregation system designed to store and query logs from applications and infrastructure. | syslog-ng collects logs from infrastructure sources, processes them, and routes or stores them for analysis. |
| Support | Grafana directs Loki users to its community forum, Grafana Labs Slack, and the Loki project email for help. | Commercial customers can access certified engineers, global coverage, and support services; Open Source Edition users are directed to community support and documentation. |
| What it does | Grafana Loki is a horizontally scalable, highly available, multi-tenant system for collecting, storing and querying logs. | syslog-ng is an enhanced log daemon that receives syslog, unstructured text, message queues, SQL and NoSQL data and routes or stores it. |
Plans
Grafana Loki
- Grafana Cloud Logs FreeFree
- Grafana Loki OSS self-hostedFree
- Loki (self-hosted)Free
- Grafana Cloud Logs Pro$19 a month
- Grafana Cloud Logs EnterprisePrice not published
syslog-ng
- syslog-ng Open Source EditionFree
- syslog-ng Premium Edition trialFree
- Syslog-ng Basic$2,800, paid once
- syslog-ng Premium EditionPriced on request
- syslog-ng Premium Edition MarketplacePriced on request
- syslog-ng Store BoxPriced on request
In their own words
Grafana Loki
Grafana Loki is a free, AGPLv3-licensed log aggregation system for storing and querying application and infrastructure logs. It can be self-hosted on Linux or accessed through Grafana Cloud Logs plans, with API support and live log tailing. Loki scales horizontally, supports high availability and multiple tenants, and indexes labels instead of log-line contents. LogQL provides queries in Grafana or the LogCLI command-line tool. Grafana describes object-storage support for high-throughput, durable, petabyte-scale retention. Loki can evaluate alerting rules on incoming logs and send results to Prometheus Alertmanager, with native integrations for Prometheus, Grafana, and Kubernetes. Documented ingestion options include Grafana Alloy, OpenTelemetry, Kubernetes Monitoring Helm, Docker, Fluent Bit, Fluentd, and Logstash. Installation methods include Helm, Tanka, Docker, Docker Compose, local installation, and source builds. Cloud plans range from free to paid Pro and Enterprise options.
syslog-ng
syslog-ng collects infrastructure logs, processes them, and routes or stores them for analysis. Its free Open Source Edition can collect, parse, classify, rewrite, and correlate logs before sending them to analysis tools or storing them. Premium Edition adds filtering and real-time pattern correlation to reduce and normalize log data, plus disk buffering, client-side failover, and application-layer acknowledgements. It supports TLS-encrypted transfer and encrypted log storage with X.509 certificates for mutual authentication. Store Box offers access-controlled search and custom reports that can help with compliance work. Listed destinations include Elasticsearch, Hadoop, Kafka, MongoDB, SQL databases, Redis, Splunk, and SIEM tools. Premium licensing is based on Log Source Hosts, with annual support available; Store Box licensing depends on Log Source Hosts and hardware configuration. Open Source Edition is GPL/LGPL licensed and community supported. Commercial customers can access certified engineers and support services; Premium Edition and Store Box offer free trials.