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Graylog Enterprise vs VMware Aria Operations for Logs comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 15, 2026

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

Graylog Enterprise
Ranking in Log Management
8th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
5.3
Number of Reviews
25
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
VMware Aria Operations for ...
Ranking in Log Management
18th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
28
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Log Management category, the mindshare of Graylog Enterprise is 4.1%, down from 6.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware Aria Operations for Logs is 1.5%, up from 1.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Log Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Graylog Enterprise4.1%
VMware Aria Operations for Logs1.5%
Other94.4%
Log Management
 

Featured Reviews

NC
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.
İÇ
Server, Virtualization and Data Storage Solutions Specialist at DE Bilişim Tek. A.Ş.
High costs and complex template management challenge us, though integration remains seamless
VMware Aria Operations for Logs is a very stable product. In my experience, its stability is one hundred percent when following best practices. Unfortunately, the real-time analytics capabilities are difficult to discuss in detail as I could not recall specific terminology. Stability and the real-time analytics capabilities are valuable when using VMware Aria Operations for Logs.

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."
"It is used as a log manager/SIEM. It provides visibility into the infrastructure and security related events."
"The ability to write custom alerts is key to information security and compliance."
"The build is stable and requires little maintenance, even compared to some extremely expensive products."
"Graylog is worth the given effort."
"The solution's most valuable feature is its new interface."
"This had increased productivity for the dev and support teams, because we are directly notifying them."
"One of the most valuable features is that you are able to do a very detailed search through the log messages in the overview."
"The solution's simplicity, flexibility, and extensibility are valuable features as we can integrate everything in vRealize."
"Log Insight correlates with the VMware product log. It can assemble the logs you want, making it easier to find the output, incident, or keyword you want to search."
"One of the things I like about it is its interface. When it comes to generating reports on VMs and stuff, it's very quick. This is very handy for the technical team, who need to generate reports quickly. So that's really good."
"I like the interface."
"The system's management and its alerts are the most valuable aspects of the solution."
"The events are notably more descriptive, aiding in security and event analysis. We've also integrated Sky Collector, providing valuable insights and solutions for troubleshooting."
"VMware Aria Operations for Logs is a very stable product."
"We use the on-premises version of this solution for log analysis and to find details about certain issues."
 

Cons

"Over six months, I had two similar issues where searches were performed on field "messages". It exhausted all the memory of the ES node causing an ES crash and a Graylog halt."
"I would like to see a default dashboard widget that shows the topology of the clusters defined for the graylog install."
"I would rate them as a two out of 10. You are on your own without an enterprise license."
"The alerting system could be more flexible."
"There are many other applications in the market that influenced my rating reduction."
"The infrastructure cost is the main issue. I like the rest. If the infrastructure costs could be lower, it would be fantastic."
"The biggest problem is the collector application, as we wanted to avoid using Graylog Collector Sidecar due to its architecture."
"Over six months, I had two similar issues where searches were performed on field "messages". It exhausted all the memory of the ES node causing an ES crash and a Graylog halt."
"What I'd like to improve in vRealize Log Insight is the licensing model. VMware provides vRealize Log Insight along with the VMware Cloud Foundation, but customers who would like to go for the native VMware would have to procure vRealize Log Insight separately. Today, vRealize Log Insight is offered on two different licenses, one is based on the number of VMs, and the other is based on the number of physical codes on the machine. If VMware can provide a bundle offer for customers who procure more than ten licenses, where you can have an option to run, for example, three hundred machines on vRealize Log Insight with no extra cost, this would encourage more people to adopt the solution. What I'd like to see in the next release of vRealize Log Insight is for a cloud option to be available, which would be a pay-as-you-go licensing model that would allow me to pick and choose what I'll monitor. For example, I have one thousand and three hundred critical servers, and the seven hundred servers for basic development, I don't want to monitor on vRealize Log Insight today, so I should be able to pick what I need to monitor on the solution and only pay for that specific instance. If VMware can apply these changes, it would help VMware customers to procure more or adopt more of vRealize Log Insight even in smaller projects."
"In the VMware environment, one area for improvement is the handling of VM failovers due to host failures, such as unexpected shutdowns from hardware issues. Currently, High Availability (HA) doesn't seem to recognize whether the VMs are online during failover, treating them as offline or unavailable."
"The dashboard needs to be improved because this is what I need to monitor my infrastructure."
"The solution should be more user-friendly. The user interface and dashboard could be simplified."
"I don't use the solution on a day to day basis, so I'm not sure what specifically can be improved."
"Paid or free does not matter, but it is complex to find good training material for vRealize Log Insight."
"Log retention should have more options for user control."
"VMware Aria Operations for Logs is not a cost-effective tool. Additionally, it is expensive, especially given the current economic conditions in Turkey."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"​You get a lot out-of-the-box with the non-enterprise version, so give it a try first."
"We're using the Community edition."
"We are using the free version of the product. However, the paid version is expensive."
"Consider Enterprise support if you have atypical needs or setup requirements.​"
"Having paid official support is wise for projects."
"If you want something that works and do not have the money for Splunk or QRadar, take Graylog.​​"
"It's open source and free. They have a paid version, but we never looked into that because we never needed the features of the paid version."
"The pricing has been updated recently."
"I think it is a reasonably priced product."
"Pricing is good because it is part of the suite package. It comes in a bundle for us."
"The product's price is reasonable, but when it comes to SQL licensing, it's a bit expensive."
"I am not sure what the exact cost is. However, I believe the vRealize suite costs $2,500.00 per year."
"I rate the product's price a six on a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive."
"The license cost for any other monitoring tool is too high compared to this product."
"The licensing cost for vRealize Log Insight is a little higher, so in terms of cost, it all depends upon what kind of environment you have. If you have a complete virtualized environment, or at least you're using a ninety-five percent virtualized environment, then vRealize Log Insight will play a very good role because it is a VMware component, so it has very tight integration with other VMware components and systems. This means you don't have to procure any other monitoring and management tool, and you don't need a separate automation tool. vRealize Log Insight will have an upper hand if your environment is purely virtualized on VMware. If you're using a mix of physical and virtual components, for example, a 50:50 ratio, then you need to have a third-party component to manage overall monitoring."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
13%
Comms Service Provider
11%
University
8%
Government
8%
Government
12%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Computer Software Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business10
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise10
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
Midsize Enterprise9
Large Enterprise12
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Graylog?
I am not sure about the pricing, setup cost, and licensing because that was dealt with by a different team that handled the licensing and procurement.
What needs improvement with Graylog?
The documentation for Graylog Enterprise can be improved, as this has been a pain point. I think the visualization aspect of Graylog Enterprise can be made more rich, similar to what we have in Gra...
What is your primary use case for Graylog?
I remember using Graylog Enterprise in the past at a software house where we used it for logging. During that time, we were using Graylog Enterprise as a log aggregator, collecting logs from multip...
What do you like most about vRealize Log Insight?
The events are notably more descriptive, aiding in security and event analysis. We've also integrated Sky Collector, providing valuable insights and solutions for troubleshooting.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for vRealize Log Insight?
The cost of using VMware Aria Operations for Logs was very high, around two to three million dollars, although the exact figure is uncertain. The price was proving to be too much, especially with t...
What needs improvement with vRealize Log Insight?
VMware Aria Operations for Logs is not a cost-effective tool. Changing any telemetry requires creating a new template, such as changes to the VM disk size. Always having to create a new template ma...
 

Also Known As

Graylog2
vRealize Log Insight
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Blue Cross Blue Shield, eBay, Cisco, LinkedIn, SAP, King.com, Twilio, Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Wildlands Adventure Zoo, Medic Mobile, IBM, Seventy Seven Energy, Baystate Health, Osis, Oxford University, Columbia University, Siemens, Cardinal Health, Ashdod Port, Vasakronan, Sydney Adventist Hospital, University of Derby
Find out what your peers are saying about Graylog Enterprise vs. VMware Aria Operations for Logs and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
884,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.