Amazon CloudWatch vs Graylog Enterprise comparison

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Graylog are both solutions in the Log Management category. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is ranked #14 with an average rating of 8.1, while Graylog is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.0. Amazon Web Services (AWS) holds a 1.8% mindshare in Log Management, compared to Graylog’s 4.4% mindshare. Additionally, 90% of Amazon Web Services (AWS) users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 95% of Graylog users who would recommend it.

Amazon CloudWatch

Read 48 Amazon CloudWatch reviews

4,846 Views
2,811 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

Graylog Enterprise

Read 24 Graylog Enterprise reviews

7,856 Views
7,856 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Amazon CloudWatch

Graylog Enterprise

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 14, 2025

Amazon CloudWatch and Graylog Enterprise both compete in the log management and monitoring space. While CloudWatch offers seamless AWS integration, Graylog Enterprise provides superior search functionality and alerting options.

Features: Amazon CloudWatch provides detailed real-time data and robust analytics, making it an ideal choice for AWS infrastructure and applications. It is scalable and offers the ability to automate actions based on triggers. Graylog Enterprise is renowned for advanced search functionality, flexibility in data processing, and extensive plugin support, essential for deep log analysis and customization.

Room for Improvement: Amazon CloudWatch could enhance dashboard functionality, improve UI for granular data analysis, and expand reporting capabilities across multiple cloud environments. Graylog Enterprise could benefit from more flexible alert systems, better documentation, and improved integration with Kubernetes. Its infrastructure costs can be high for large-scale settings.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Amazon CloudWatch, as a cloud-based solution, is easy to deploy within AWS, though higher support tiers incur extra costs. Graylog Enterprise offers more control with on-premises deployments and community-driven support, but enterprise support can be more expensive.

Pricing and ROI: Amazon CloudWatch uses a pay-as-you-go model based on usage and storage, potentially costly at scale but cost-efficient for AWS users. Graylog Enterprise's free version is suitable for smaller operations, while enterprise features are priced at a premium, with costs increasing for large-scale operations due to infrastructure demands.

To learn more, read our detailed Amazon CloudWatch vs. Graylog Enterprise Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Amazon CloudWatch vs. Graylog Enterprise

December 2025

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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

Amazon CloudWatch

Ranking in Log Management

14th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (14th), Cloud Monitoring Software (12th)

Graylog Enterprise

Ranking in Log Management

8th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

5.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Log Management category, the mindshare of Amazon CloudWatch is 1.8%, up from 1.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Graylog Enterprise is 4.4%, down from 6.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Log Management Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Graylog Enterprise	4.4%
Amazon CloudWatch	1.8%
Other	93.8%

Log Management

Featured Reviews

Azam S M

Infrastructure Lead at Danat Fz LLC

Has provided reliable monitoring and alerting through extensive metric tracking and dashboard configuration

Amazon CloudWatch itself provides a lot of data. However, for visualization, we need to use third-party tools. We are in a process of integrating Grafana, Loki, and Prometheus to have better visualization on Amazon CloudWatch. We are also integrating Grafana with the application itself to get the application data and logs. Alternatively, there is AWS Kinesis and Glue where you can scrape the logs and have visualization, but a more easy option is Grafana. If you want to get a proper visual representation to see what is happening, then you need to integrate a third-party tool. Amazon CloudWatch has all the data, but to see what is happening, you need some third-party tool.

Read full review

NicolaeCIornii

Security Officer at JSC "Moldtelecom" S.A.

Log analysis has become clearer and faster but visualization and extensibility still need work

The problem was with the complexity and the cost to add extensions. We found this very expensive to buy another version with additional features. I think that Graylog Enterprise does not have customizable dashboards. I did not see them in Graylog Enterprise because most of the time we used the open source free version, which is limited. I think Graylog Enterprise should improve some things that they have in the paid version and perhaps provide users with a menu that gives examples of parsing logs and draws graphics so that people do not need to improve another system such as Grafana. This would be interesting. When it comes to functionalities, I found the log management in Graylog Enterprise acceptable. It is very simple to use and to collect logs. It has support for different protocols and different ports, and the sidecar is easy to use. However, in visualization, I think it needs to be much better.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It is a stable solution...I rate the technical support a ten out of ten."

"The most valuable part is the metrics part, which is really good."

"Setting up this product was easy. I found data analytics as its most valuable feature."

"You can enable alarms and metrics, and it has robust integration with AWS services. You can also trigger events. For example, if the CPU utilization is above 80%, it can launch a new instance for you."

"The most valuable feature of Amazon CloudWatch is intrusion prevention."

"Amazon CloudWatch's best feature stems from its ability to monitor app performance."

"It offers direct integrations with various storage providers, making it convenient to push logs from CloudWatch to these external platforms."

"The product can be integrated with AWS very easily."

More Amazon CloudWatch pros

"Graylog's search functionality, alerting functionality, user management, and dashboards are useful."

"It is used as a log manager/SIEM. It provides visibility into the infrastructure and security related events."

"The product is scalable. The solution is stable."

"The build is stable and requires little maintenance, even compared to some extremely expensive products."

"Open source and user friendly."

"UDP is a fast and lightweight protocol, perfect for sending large volumes of logs with minimal overhead."

"We run a containerized microservices environment. Being able to set up streams and search for errors and anomalies across hundreds of containers is why a log aggregation platform like Graylog is valuable to us."

"It has data adapters and lookup tables that utilize HTTP calls to APIs."

More Graylog Enterprise pros

Cons

"Amazon CloudWatch charges extra for custom metrics, which is a significant disadvantage."

"CloudWatch's scalability could be improved."

"The configuration capabilities could be better."

"Some of our customers want to use Kubernetes to monitor their CICD flow but Amazon CloudWatch does not support it. We need to use another solution, such as Datadog or Dynatrace has the needed capability."

"What would make Amazon CloudWatch better is if it includes more on-site checks, particularly status checks on the CPU, network input/output, etc. It would also be helpful if there's built-in swap space, disk, and memory monitoring in Amazon CloudWatch because, at the moment, my team has to configure it manually through a shell script."

"When connecting to Google Cloud, there is no visibility or traceability from Google Cloud into CloudWatch."

"It's not an advanced way of monitoring."

"The product’s documentation must be improved."

More Amazon CloudWatch cons

"Dashboards, stream alerts and parsing could be improved."

"Graylog can improve the index rotation as it's quite a complex solution."

"When it comes to configuring the processing pipeline, writing the rules can be very tedious, especially since the documentation isn't extensive on how the functions provided for these rules work."

"Graylog needs to improve their authentication. Also, the fact that Graylog displays logs from the top down is just ridiculous."

"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."

"More complex visualizations and the ability to execute custom Elasticsearch queries would be great."

"There are many other applications in the market that influenced my rating reduction."

"I would like to see a date and time in the Graylog Grok patterns so that I can save time when searching for a log. I like how the streams and the search query work, but adding a date and time will allow me to pull out a log in a milli-second."

More Graylog Enterprise cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of Amazon CloudWatch is reasonable for detailed basic monitoring."

"The solution is expensive."

"What's were using is the free service of Amazon CloudWatch, so they're not charging us. As for hidden fees, we're not aware of them because we're using what our clients provided us."

"The pricing model is pay-as-you-go so you have to be mindful of usage to manage costs."

"The price is okay for me."

"The product's cost is relatively inexpensive."

"Amazon CloudWatch has very cheap pricing, and it hardly costs my company $25-$30 a month for fifty systems, so it's pretty affordable."

"Its pricing is reasonable. It is sometimes tricky, but it is reasonable as compared to others."

More Amazon CloudWatch pricing and cost advice

"I use the free version of Graylog."

"I am using a community edition. I have not looked at the enterprise offering from Graylog."

"It's an open-source solution that can be used free of charge."

"You get a lot out-of-the-box with the non-enterprise version, so give it a try first."

"Graylog is a free open-source solution. The free version has a capacity limitation of 2 GB daily, if you want to go above this you have to purchase a license."

"We're using the Community edition."

"Having paid official support is wise for projects."

"There is an open source version and an enterprise version. I wouldn't recommend the enterprise version, but as an open source solution, it is solid and works really well."

More Graylog Enterprise pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

15%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Computer Software Company

Transportation Company

Computer Software Company

14%

Comms Service Provider

11%

University

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	17
Midsize Enterprise	9
Large Enterprise	24

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	10
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	9

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Amazon CloudWatch?

The monitoring features are valuable.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon CloudWatch?

No specific setup costs were mentioned.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Amazon CloudWatch?

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Graylog?

I am not familiar with the pricing details of Graylog, as I was not responsible for that aspect. It was determined that we didn't need an enterprise plan, which is more suited for clients with less...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Graylog?

I do not have any specific examples or numbers, such as time saved or incidents to share. Currently, I have no suggestions for how Graylog Enterprise can be improved, as there are no pain points or...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Graylog?

Graylog Enterprise is the logging and management tool we initially used, but later we stopped using it and switched to Loki, Grafana Loki for the logs. Eventually, we moved back to Graylog Enterpri...

See all answers

Comparisons

Grafana Loki vs Amazon CloudWatch

Compared 13% of the time

Amazon OpenSearch Service vs Amazon CloudWatch

Compared 7% of the time

Dynatrace vs Amazon CloudWatch

Compared 5% of the time

Zabbix vs Amazon CloudWatch

Compared 5% of the time

Datadog vs Amazon CloudWatch

Compared 4% of the time

More Amazon CloudWatch Competitors

Grafana Loki vs Graylog Enterprise

Compared 22% of the time

Wazuh vs Graylog Enterprise

Compared 17% of the time

syslog-ng vs Graylog Enterprise

Compared 8% of the time

Security Onion vs Graylog Enterprise

Compared 6% of the time

Splunk Enterprise Security vs Graylog Enterprise

Compared 3% of the time

More Graylog Enterprise Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Amazon CloudWatch

January 2026

Download Amazon CloudWatch product report

Buyer's Guide

Graylog Enterprise

January 2026

Download Graylog Enterprise product report

Also Known As

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Graylog2

Overview

Amazon CloudWatch integrates seamlessly with AWS, providing real-time monitoring and alerting features. Its interface supports task automation, enhancing troubleshooting and analytics capabilities, while offering strong security and scalability at a cost-effective rate.

Amazon CloudWatch is an impactful platform for monitoring AWS resources and managing application performance. It simplifies infrastructure performance monitoring by providing comprehensive analytics capabilities, including application insights and event scheduling. Users appreciate CloudWatch for its detailed metrics, dashboards, and support in issuing alerts to detect anomalies. It efficiently tracks performance, optimizes resource utilization, and ensures service availability. CloudWatch is recognized for its robust alerting features and integration with other AWS services, further supporting its resource monitoring capabilities. However, there is room for improvement in dashboard customization, log streaming speed, and integration with non-AWS services. Enhancements in API integration, machine learning features, and support for third-party tools are also desired.

What features does Amazon CloudWatch offer?

Seamless Integration: Works effortlessly with AWS for cohesive service management.
Advanced Metrics: Provides detailed monitoring of CPU, memory, and more.
Real-time Monitoring: Offers up-to-the-minute alerts on infrastructure status.
Dashboards: User-friendly and informative for quick insights.
Automation: Supports task automation for efficient troubleshooting.

What benefits does Amazon CloudWatch provide?

Cost-effectiveness: Efficient resource monitoring without high costs.
Scalability: Easily adapts to growing infrastructure needs.
Security: Strong protocols for safe monitoring activities.
Improved Performance: Enhances application insights and operational efficiency.
Operational Insights: Provides comprehensive logging and performance analysis.

Industries implementing Amazon CloudWatch often focus on optimizing IT infrastructure. Companies in sectors like finance and e-commerce rely on its monitoring and alerting capabilities to ensure service uptime and performance. The platform's automation and analytics features empower teams to proactively manage performance and detect potential issues promptly.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Graylog Enterprise, recognized for log collection, real-time search, and enriched data handling, offers an open-source framework that integrates seamlessly with Elasticsearch. Its user-centric interface streamlines data correlation and log aggregation, supporting both backend services and comprehensive monitoring needs.

Graylog Enterprise stands out for its stability and powerful log management capabilities, facilitating efficient log aggregation, real-time updates, and data analytics. Users benefit from its plugin-based alerting, user-friendly interface, and support for microservices, including Docker integration. The ability to search in detail, flexible API integration, and data enrichment features are highly valued. Challenges include collector application issues, desired visualization enhancements, and authentication integration improvements. Users seek advancements in UI customization, backup functions, and easier rule creation.

What are Graylog Enterprise's most important features?

Log Collection: Efficiently aggregates and handles diverse logs.
Real-Time Search: Provides immediate log data access.
Custom Alerts: Plugin-based alerting for tailored notifications.
Dashboard Enhancements: Improved visualization for data insights.
Data Enrichment: Adds value through detailed log analysis.

What benefits and ROI can users expect?

Audit Trail Support: Essential for compliance in financial sectors.
Security Event Correlation: Enables incident analysis and response.
Faster Issue Identification: Speeds up troubleshooting with detailed visualization.
API Flexibility: Seamless integration across systems and environments.
Comprehensive Monitoring: Centralized log management enhances oversight.

In industrial use, Graylog Enterprise is crucial for audit trailing in financial sectors, facilitating security event identification and error monitoring. Backend teams leverage real-time analytics for swift issue resolution, while developers appreciate the comprehensive log visualization enabled by Docker integration for microservice management.

Graylog

Sample Customers

AirAsia, Airbnb, Aircel, APUS, Avazu, Casa & Video, Futbol Club Barcelona (FCBarcelona), National Taiwan University, redBus

Blue Cross Blue Shield, eBay, Cisco, LinkedIn, SAP, King.com, Twilio, Deutsche Presse-Agentur

Buyer's Guide

Amazon CloudWatch vs. Graylog Enterprise

December 2025

Free Report: Amazon CloudWatch vs. Graylog Enterprise

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