Graylog Enterprise vs Splunk Enterprise Security comparison

Graylog and Splunk are both solutions in the Log Management category. Graylog is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.0, while Splunk is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.3. Graylog holds a 4.4% mindshare in Log Management, compared to Splunk’s 6.9% mindshare. Additionally, 95% of Graylog users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of Splunk users who would recommend it.

Graylog Enterprise

Read 24 Graylog Enterprise reviews

7,856 Views
7,856 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Splunk Enterprise Security

Read 375 Splunk Enterprise Security reviews

26,439 Views
14,277 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

Graylog Enterprise

Splunk Enterprise Security

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 14, 2025

Splunk Enterprise Security and Graylog Enterprise compete in the log management and security information and event management (SIEM) markets. Based on data, Splunk might have the upper hand due to its scalability and broad integrations, while Graylog is noted for its open-source advantages and specific use case efficiency.

Features: Splunk Enterprise Security is renowned for its log management, comprehensive search via schema-on-read technology, and strong integration capabilities. It provides operational intelligence and flexibility in data handling, alongside enhanced visibility from diverse data sources. Graylog Enterprise features robust search functionalities and alerting capabilities, emphasizing its strength in managing data from various sources on an open-source platform.

Room for Improvement: Splunk Enterprise Security users seek improved visualizations and a more intuitive GUI, alongside better security administration controls. Enhancements in real-time intelligence and second-factor authentication are also desired. Graylog Enterprise needs a more user-friendly interface for complex environments and better documentation, along with increased integration capabilities for extended flexibility.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Splunk Enterprise Security offers a variety of deployment options including public, private, hybrid clouds, and on-premises solutions, supported by a robust community. Users value the professional support and knowledge base, despite noted delays in response times. Graylog Enterprise, mostly deployed on-premises or in hybrid clouds, benefits from the simplicity of open-source availability, though lacks extensive support for resolving complex issues.

Pricing and ROI: Splunk Enterprise Security is perceived as high-cost, justified by its extensive features and performance in large enterprises, with substantial returns in security and operational efficiency. Graylog Enterprise appeals to budget-conscious users due to its open-source model, offering significant licensing cost savings but potentially requiring more development work for full-scale implementation.

To learn more, read our detailed Graylog Enterprise vs. Splunk Enterprise Security Report (Updated: February 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Graylog Enterprise vs. Splunk Enterprise Security

February 2026

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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

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

Splunk Enterprise Security

Ranking in Log Management

2nd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

375

Ranking in other categories

Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) (1st), IT Operations Analytics (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Log Management category, the mindshare of Graylog Enterprise is 4.4%, down from 6.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Splunk Enterprise Security is 6.9%, down from 7.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Log Management Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Splunk Enterprise Security	6.9%
Graylog Enterprise	4.4%
Other	88.7%

Log Management

Featured Reviews

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.

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reviewer1469784

Senior Manager at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

Helps us detect cyber threats quickly and integrate multiple feeds effectively

Overall, the product is good, but when it comes to some infrastructure issues, we have to dig into more logs. There is no straightforward indication of an issue. Health check kind of dashboards are not available. More AI would help us, and more optimization, since security products run more queries. The AI module could suggest solutions, optimizing queries or workload balancing. If the product itself advises on running queries during peak times, it would be similar to what ChatGPT currently offers. We see quite a few issues on stability. Even last week, we faced something, and identifying bottlenecks is not easy. We need more SMEs, and there is no mechanism to tell us about indexer or search head issues. Self-monitoring dashboards could be beneficial. The technical support still requires more improvement. Often, primary support takes a lot of time and forwards most solutions to the engineering side. The primary support team has very limited knowledge to provide.

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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."

"Message forwarding through the in-built module."

"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."

"I like the correlation and the alerting."

"What I like about Graylog is that it's real-time and you have access to the raw data. So, you ingest it, and you have access to every message and every data item you ingest. You can then build analytics on top of that. You can look at the raw data, and you can do some volumetric estimations, such as how big traffic you have, how many messages of data of a type you have, etc."

"The best feature of Graylog is the Elasticsearch integration. We can integrate and we can run filters, such as an event of interest, and those logs we can send to any SIEM tool or as an analytic. Additionally, there are clear and well-documented implementation instructions on their website to follow if needed."

"Graylog is valuable because it bridges technical knowledge to non-technical teams, presenting complex backend processes in a simple timeline."

"The ability to write custom alerts is key to information security and compliance."

More Graylog Enterprise pros

"Splunk stands out for its extensive application integrations."

"I really appreciate the all-integrated SIEM feature of Splunk Enterprise Security, which serves as a one-stop shop to get all security tasks done."

"The features of Splunk Enterprise Security that I prefer most are the correlation engine and the common information model, basically the aggregation of data."

"The most valuable function is the notable events. When I joined the team, I asked them what they could currently see, and they said nothing. I was pretty shocked. I know for a fact that they're using Enterprise Security or at least they had purchased it. I told them that there are several dashboards within Splunk that we can leverage. There is also notable events where we can see potential incidents or potential alerts about the infrastructure and the network itself."

"It is lovely to have everything we need in one tool. Everything is quite centralized."

"What I appreciate the most about the product is the flexibility with data ingestion and searching, which is very powerful; you can do whatever you want with it."

"The dashboards are the most valuable feature. We like the ability to drill in and see what queries are under the dashboard, build new visualizations, edit the querying, and see the reports."

"Splunk Enterprise Security provides the foundation for unified threat detection, investigation, and response, enabling fast identification of critical issues."

More Splunk Enterprise Security pros

Cons

"Its scalability gets complicated when we have to update or edit multiple nodes."

"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."

"With technical support, you are on your own without an enterprise license."

"There should be some user groups and an auto sign-in feature."

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

"Lacks sufficient documentation."

"More customization is always useful."

"The biggest problem is the collector application, as we wanted to avoid using Graylog Collector Sidecar due to its architecture."

More Graylog Enterprise cons

"It is very complicated to write your own correlation rules without the help of Splunk support."

"Cybersecurity and infrastructure monitoring have room for improvement."

"Adding custom visualization in Splunk has been improved over the years but can still be made better by integrating more and more JavaScript visualization sources."

"It would be nice if Splunk reduced the cost of training. Their training sessions are way too costly."

"Licensing costs can be a barrier for those with limited budgets."

"I would like some additional AI capabilities to provide additional information about things going wrong and things going well."

"On the technical side, it would be nice to see aspects of the recent acquisition of Phantom make it into the core Splunk Enterprise, not just become a part of the premium Enterprise Security."

"I would like to see future development in terms of ML (Machine Learning)."

More Splunk Enterprise Security cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

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

"We are using the free version of the product. However, the paid version is expensive."

"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."

"I use the free version of Graylog."

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

More Graylog Enterprise pricing and cost advice

"The price of Splunk Enterprise Security fluctuates based on the customer, but I believe it's quite costly, especially for our clientele."

"I am fine with the licensing, but in terms of the cost, it is expensive for the data that we have. We have an open discussion with our account rep about this."

"Splunk ES is quite expensive compared to some products on the market."

"Personnel costs are saved by not having to involve the domain developers from multiple teams when tracing a problem that spans multiple platforms."

"Splunk is not free."

"It is not cheap."

"It is expensive. I used to buy it early on, but then they combined it into a higher-up organization. They buy it for multiple systems now. Last time, I paid around 60K for it. There is just the licensing fee. That's all."

"We have had a reduction in the time it takes to resolve issues and correlate what has failed."

More Splunk Enterprise Security pricing and cost advice

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Comparison Review

Vinod Shankar

Manager, Enterprise Risk Consulting at a tech company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Feb 26, 2015

HP ArcSight vs. IBM QRadar vs. McAfee Nitro vs. Splunk vs. RSA Security vs. LogRhythm

We at Infosecnirvana.com have done several posts on SIEM. After the Dummies Guide on SIEM, we are following it up with a SIEM Product Comparison – 101 deck. So, here it is for your viewing pleasure. Let me know what you think by posting your comments below. The key products compared here are…

Read full review

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

14%

Comms Service Provider

11%

University

Government

Financial Services Firm

13%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	109
Midsize Enterprise	50
Large Enterprise	264

Questions from the Community

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...

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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...

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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...

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What SOC product do you recommend?

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, rememb...

See all answers

What is a better choice, Splunk or Azure Sentinel?

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 ...

See all answers

How does Splunk compare with Azure Monitor?

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...

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Comparisons

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

Fortinet FortiAnalyzer vs Graylog Enterprise

Compared 3% of the time

More Graylog Enterprise Competitors

IBM Security QRadar vs Splunk Enterprise Security

Compared 10% of the time

Wazuh vs Splunk Enterprise Security

Compared 5% of the time

Sentinel vs Splunk Enterprise Security

Compared 4% of the time

Dynatrace vs Splunk Enterprise Security

Compared 4% of the time

Datadog vs Splunk Enterprise Security

Compared 3% of the time

More Splunk Enterprise Security Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Graylog Enterprise

January 2026

Download Graylog Enterprise product report

Buyer's Guide

Splunk Enterprise Security

January 2026

Download Splunk Enterprise Security product report

Also Known As

Graylog2

No data available

Overview

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

Splunk Enterprise Security delivers powerful log management, rapid searches, and intuitive dashboards, enhancing real-time analytics and security measures. Its advanced machine learning and wide system compatibility streamline threat detection and incident response across diverse IT environments.

Splunk Enterprise Security stands out in security operations with robust features like comprehensive threat intelligence and seamless data integration. Its real-time analytics and customizable queries enable proactive threat analysis and efficient incident response. Integration with multiple third-party feeds allows detailed threat correlation and streamlined data visualization. Users find the intuitive UI and broad compatibility support efficient threat detection while reducing false positives. Despite its strengths, areas such as visualization capabilities and integration processes with cloud environments need enhancement. Users face a high learning curve, and improvements in automation, AI, documentation, and training are desired to maximize its potential.

What Are the Key Features of Splunk Enterprise Security?

Log Management: Efficiently manages and organizes a vast amount of logs for better data handling.
Rapid Data Search: Quickly retrieves relevant data for fast decision-making.
Flexible Dashboards: Customizable dashboards provide clear data visualization.
Comprehensive Threat Intelligence: Offers detailed insights to preemptively defend against threats.
Real-Time Analytics: Analyzes data in real-time to enhance response times.
Integration with Third-Party Feeds: Streamlines information flow from multiple sources.

What Benefits Should Users Investigate in Reviews?

Efficient Incident Response: Enhances the ability to respond promptly to threats.
False Positive Reduction: Minimizes incorrect threat alarms, making monitoring more efficient.
Threat Detection Speed: Accelerates the identification and evaluation of security threats.
Cost-Effectiveness: Potential savings through better licensing options and operational efficiency.
User Adaptability: Enhancements in documentation and training resources aid in overcoming the learning curve.

In specific industries like finance and healthcare, Splunk Enterprise Security is instrumental for log aggregation, SIEM functionalities, and compliance monitoring. Companies leverage its capabilities for proactive threat analysis and response, ensuring comprehensive security monitoring and integration with various tools for heightened operational intelligence.

Splunk

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.

Buyer's Guide

Graylog Enterprise vs. Splunk Enterprise Security

February 2026

Free Report: Graylog Enterprise vs. Splunk Enterprise Security

Find out what your peers are saying about Graylog Enterprise vs. Splunk Enterprise Security and other solutions. Updated: February 2026.

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