Graylog vs Splunk Enterprise Security comparison

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Graylog Logo
10,226 views|8,623 comparisons
94% willing to recommend
Splunk Logo
26,790 views|21,907 comparisons
92% willing to recommend
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary
Updated on Sep 22, 2023

We compared Graylog and Splunk Enterprise Security across several parameters based on our users' reviews. After reading the collected data, you can find our conclusion below:

  • Features: Graylog stands out with its exceptional search functions, seamless integration with Elasticsearch, and real-time data access. Splunk Enterprise Security stands out for its efficiency, extensive integration options, and powerful search functionality. Users say Splunk is a highly scalable and customizable solution.
  • Room for Improvement: Graylog could benefit from additional customization options and an improved rule-creation process. Splunk users recommended improvements in AI capabilities, user-friendliness, and analytics.

  • Service and Support: Graylog's customer service is generally well-regarded, with reviewers noting effective solutions and satisfactory experiences. While response times may differ, Graylog's support is considered superior compared to that of other products. While some users found Splunk support to be responsive and helpful, others reported slow response times and a lack of expertise. While some users found Splunk support to be responsive and helpful, others reported slow response times and a lack of expertise.

  • Ease of Deployment: Some Graylog users said the setup was easy. Other reviewers faced challenges, but these were easily resolved with help from the vendor’s support staff. Graylog is easier to set up in smaller environments, but it could get complicated in large clusters. Some users thought Splunk Enterprise Security was easy to deploy, while others found it challenging and needed assistance from Splunk engineers or third-party integrators.

  • Pricing: Graylog offers an enterprise edition and an open-source option with a daily capacity restriction. Some users said that data costs can be expensive. Some users consider Splunk Enterprise Security to be expensive, but others said the price is reasonable. A few users expressed concerns about the cost of scaling up the solution and managing large volumes of data.

  • ROI: Graylog can offer some cost savings. The precise ROI may vary depending on the organization’s size and use case. Users said that it’s challenging to calculate an ROI for Splunk Enterprise Security, and the return varies depending on individual circumstances. While some users have observed a substantial ROI, others have not actively explored or been engaged in ROI conversations.

Conclusion: Users highly value Splunk's search function, session reports, and event management functionality, but the solution could be more intuitive and offer more AI-enhanced features. Graylog is recognized for its search capabilities and integration with Elasticsearc, but it lacks customization options and has higher infrastructure costs. 
To learn more, read our detailed Graylog vs. Splunk Enterprise Security Report (Updated: April 2024).
771,170 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"Storing logs in Elasticsearch means log retrieval is extremely fast, and full text search is available by default.""The build is stable and requires little maintenance, even compared to some extremely expensive products.""The solution's most valuable feature is its new interface.""Real-time UDP/GELF logging and full text-based searching.""I am very proud of how very stable the solution is.""I like the correlation and the alerting.""The ability to write custom alerts is key to information security and compliance.""Everything stands out as valuable, including the fact that I can quantify and qualify the logs, create pipelines and process the logs in any way I like, and create charts or data maps."

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"We did not encounter any issues with scalability. It is almost seamless to add new index (storage) or search (used to analyze the data) nodes to the cluster.""One key advantage of Splunk over competitors like IBM QRadar is its superior device integration capabilities.""Visualizations helped the organisation with a better understanding of its KPIs.""Its dashboard is valuable. If you have a good knowledge of how to create a dashboard, you can create any dashboard related to cybersecurity. If fine-tuned, the alarms that are triggered for instant review are also very valuable and useful.""It has a rapid response search environment in the event of an incident.""One of the most valuable features is threat hunting. We can do threat hunting and identify if there is any malicious activity happening within our environment, which is a key feature for us.""The initial setup isn't overly complex.""The solution has proven to be quite stable."

More Splunk Enterprise Security Pros →

Cons
"Graylog needs to improve their authentication. Also, the fact that Graylog displays logs from the top down is just ridiculous.""There should be some user groups and an auto sign-in feature.​""I hope to see improvements in Graylog for more interactivity, user-friendliness, and creating alerts. The initial setup is complex.""I would like to see a default dashboard widget that shows the topology of the clusters defined for the graylog install.""Graylog can improve the index rotation as it's quite a complex solution.""Elasticsearch recommendations for tuning could be better. Graylog doesn't have direct support for running the system inside of Kubernetes, so it can be challenging to fill in the gaps and set up containers in a way that is both performant and stable.""Graylog could improve the process of creating rules. We have to create them manually by doing parses and applying them. Other SIEM solutions have basic rules and you can create and get more events of interest.""Dashboards, stream alerts and parsing could be improved."

More Graylog Cons →

"I feel the solution to be too slow.""Its user interface for everything other than the charts can be improved. Some parts of it can be simplified a bit, such as when importing documents that have the network traffic. When you're going through the information about the network traffic, you have to have the expertise, but even if a program is supposed to be for IT support, it is good to make it user-friendly because it gets easier to train people. When something goes wrong, the more difficult a program is in terms of UI, the harder it is to fix the issue.""Splunk could have more built-in use case presets that customers can build on and customize.""There is a definite learning curve to starting out.""You do need a lot of training and certification with this product.""Licensing costs can be a barrier for those with limited budgets.""The Enterprise Security app could be improved. We have had trouble with it working from the first day.""Many of my clients want to get better at Splunk, but they're afraid of using the tool because they feel it's too complex for them."

More Splunk Enterprise Security Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "Having paid official support is wise for projects."
  • "I am using a community edition. I have not looked at the enterprise offering from Graylog."
  • "If you want something that works and do not have the money for Splunk or QRadar, take Graylog.​​"
  • "​You get a lot out-of-the-box with the non-enterprise version, so give it a try first."
  • "Consider Enterprise support if you have atypical needs or setup requirements.​"
  • "I use the free version of Graylog."
  • "It's an open-source solution that can be used free of charge."
  • "We're using the Community edition."
  • More Graylog Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "Pricing and licensing is quite expensive. But for the value the product provides, it seems at par in the market."
  • "Although Splunk is an expensive product, it is designed to be utilized across your organization in order to maximize your ROI and lower your TCO."
  • "It is not cheap."
  • "Splunk Enterprise becomes extremely expensive after the 20GB/month license."
  • "You will eat up whatever you purchase quickly. The level of insights that Splunk empowers is addictive."
  • "Splunk licensing model might seem expensive but with all the gain in functionalities you will have compared to traditional SIEM solutions I think it’s worth the price."
  • "Pricing is pretty fair."
  • "While licensing can be a concern, there are ways to reduce the licensing costs including filtering some events."
  • More Splunk Enterprise Security Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Comparison Review
    Vinod Shankar
    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:The product is scalable. The solution is stable.
    Top Answer:We are using the free version of the product. However, the paid version is expensive.
    Top Answer:Since it's a free tool, I don't have much to say. Troubleshooting is important to me. The initial setup is complex. I hope to see improvements in Graylog for more interactivity, user-friendliness, and… more »
    Top Answer: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,… more »
    Top Answer: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… more »
    Top Answer: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… more »
    Ranking
    11th
    out of 95 in Log Management
    Views
    10,226
    Comparisons
    8,623
    Reviews
    6
    Average Words per Review
    802
    Rating
    7.3
    1st
    out of 95 in Log Management
    Views
    26,790
    Comparisons
    21,907
    Reviews
    69
    Average Words per Review
    930
    Rating
    8.4
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    Graylog2
    Learn More
    Overview

    Graylog is purpose-built to deliver the best log collection, storage, enrichment, and analysis. Graylog is:

    • Considerably faster analysis speeds.
    • More robust and easier-to-use analysis platform.
    • Simpler administration and infrastructure management.
    • Lower cost than alternatives.
    • Full-scale customer service.
    • No expensive training or tool experts required.

    Splunk Enterprise Security is a SIEM, log management, and IT operations analytics tool. The solution provides users with the ability to secure their information and manage their data in the cloud, data centers, or other applications. Splunk Enterprise Security also offers visibility from different areas, levels, and devices, rather than from a single system, thus, providing its users with flexibility. Splunk Enterprise Security can monitor data and analyze, detect, and prevent intrusions. This benefits users as it provides alerts to possible intrusions, helps users to be proactive, and reduces risk factors. 

    Full visibility across your environment

    Break down data silos and gain actionable intelligence by ingesting data from multicloud and on-premises deployments. Get full visibility to quickly detect malicious threats in your environment.

    Fast threat detection

    Defend against threats with advanced security analytics, machine learning and threat intelligence that focus detection and provide high-fidelity alerts to shorten triage times and raise true positive rates.

    Efficient investigations

    Gather all the context you need and initiate flexible investigations with security analytics at your fingertips. The built-in open and extensible data platform boosts productivity and drives down fatigue.

    Open and scalable

    Built on an open and scalable data platform, you can stay agile in the face of evolving threats and business needs. Splunk meets you where you are on your cloud journey, and integrates across your data, tools and content.

    Sample Customers
    Blue Cross Blue Shield, eBay, Cisco, LinkedIn, SAP, King.com, Twilio, Deutsche Presse-Agentur
    Splunk has more than 7,000 customers spread across over 90 countries. These customers include Telenor, UniCredit, ideeli, McKenney's, Tesco, and SurveyMonkey.
    Top Industries
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company16%
    Comms Service Provider10%
    Government8%
    Educational Organization7%
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company20%
    Financial Services Firm15%
    Government9%
    Energy/Utilities Company8%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm15%
    Computer Software Company14%
    Government9%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business50%
    Midsize Enterprise7%
    Large Enterprise43%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business32%
    Midsize Enterprise18%
    Large Enterprise50%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business31%
    Midsize Enterprise11%
    Large Enterprise57%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business19%
    Midsize Enterprise13%
    Large Enterprise68%
    Buyer's Guide
    Graylog vs. Splunk Enterprise Security
    April 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Graylog vs. Splunk Enterprise Security and other solutions. Updated: April 2024.
    771,170 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Graylog is ranked 11th in Log Management with 18 reviews while Splunk Enterprise Security is ranked 1st in Log Management with 240 reviews. Graylog is rated 8.0, while Splunk Enterprise Security is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Graylog writes "Great detailed search features and easy Java integration, but needs improvement in integration with Python". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Splunk Enterprise Security writes "It has a drag-and-drop interface, so you don't need to know SQL or Java to construct a query ". Graylog is most compared with Grafana Loki, Wazuh, syslog-ng, Fortinet FortiAnalyzer and Elastic Security, whereas Splunk Enterprise Security is most compared with Wazuh, Dynatrace, IBM Security QRadar, Elastic Security and Microsoft Sentinel. See our Graylog vs. Splunk Enterprise Security report.

    See our list of best Log Management vendors.

    We monitor all Log Management reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.