Graylog vs VMware Aria Operations for Logs comparison

Graylog and VMware are both solutions in the Log Management category. Graylog is ranked #15 with an average rating of 7.0, while VMware is ranked #12 with an average rating of 8.2. Graylog holds a 6.5% mindshare in Log Management, compared to VMware’s 1.3% mindshare. Additionally, 95% of Graylog users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of VMware users who would recommend it.

Graylog

Read 21 Graylog reviews

9,223 Views
5,549 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

VMware Aria Operations for ...

Read 28 VMware Aria Operations for Logs reviews

2,165 Views
840 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Graylog

VMware Aria Operations for ...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 9, 2024

VMware Aria Operations for Logs and Graylog are products in the log management sector. VMware Aria Operations for Logs appears more favorable in deployment and customer service, while Graylog demonstrates competitiveness based on pricing and features.

Features: VMware Aria Operations is noted for comprehensive integration capabilities, seamless data aggregation, and in-depth analysis. Graylog offers open-source flexibility, real-time analysis capabilities, and the ability to extensively customize and scale solutions. Graylog also shows adaptability in complex environments.

Room for Improvement: VMware Aria Operations could improve reporting tools, enhance configuration processes, and provide a more intuitive interface. Graylog users highlight the need for better technical documentation, quicker support response times, and smoother installation experiences. Graylog receives more specific feedback on documentation compared to VMware’s usability focus.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: VMware Aria Operations provides an easier deployment process and consistent customer support. Graylog is seen as requiring more technical expertise for setup, with variable support experiences. VMware's team is perceived as more responsive.

Pricing and ROI: VMware Aria Operations has higher initial costs but offers value through its features and stability, contributing to positive ROI. Graylog's pricing models are competitive but may need further investments for customization, influencing ROI differently, yet it's considered cost-effective for scalable deployments.

To learn more, read our detailed Graylog vs. VMware Aria Operations for Logs Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Graylog vs. VMware Aria Operations for Logs

June 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

Graylog

Ranking in Log Management

15th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

VMware Aria Operations for ...

Ranking in Log Management

12th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Log Management category, the mindshare of Graylog is 6.5%, up from 5.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware Aria Operations for Logs is 1.3%, up from 1.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Log Management

Featured Reviews

Ivan Kokalovic

DevOps Engineer at Proton Technologies

Facilitates backend service monitoring with efficient log retrieval and API flexibility

Graylog is valuable because it bridges technical knowledge to non-technical teams, presenting complex backend processes in a simple timeline. It boosts the knowledge of sales and customer support teams by allowing them to see the backend operations without needing to read the code. Its API is flexible for visualization, and its powerful search engine efficiently handles large volumes of log data. Moreover, its stability, fast search capabilities, and compatibility with languages like ANSI SQL enhance its utility in IT infrastructure.

Read full review

LarsChristensen

Advisory Solution Consultant at ServiceNow

Efficient troubleshooting with precise log filtering and an easy setup

The tool could benefit from improved filter settings and dashboarding. While there are dashboards available, they are often created by community members and may not work after updates. It would be beneficial to have a roadmap for these dashboards to ensure consistent functionality. It would also be advantageous if the tool could process even large amounts of data faster, though this may be more related to data movement challenges rather than the software itself.

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

"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."

"Open source and user friendly."

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

"I am very proud of how very stable the solution is."

"Message forwarding through the in-built module."

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

"Graylog is very handy."

"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."

More Graylog pros

"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."

"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."

"The most valuable feature is server virtualization. It's been very useful."

"Overall, I would recommend VMware Aria Operations for Logs because it is a good tool with many valuable features."

"The trace log is the solution's most valuable feature. It's very helpful in troubleshooting problems."

"What I like is that you can have different storage locations for different applications."

"It is a very useful tool if you have a VMware environment."

"One of the most valuable features of vRealize Log Insight is that it gives you a clear forecast about your existing machines, for example, how long your machines could be supported and how long the remaining capacity is to host your machines. This is one of the best options available within vRealize Log Insight. Another valuable feature of the solution is automation. My company deploys a lot of automation when required in a very, very short period, and in a very uniform manner, and even if the automation is being deployed for different processes and departments, it's pretty much the same across the environment, so vRealize Log Insight helps reduce a lot of ambiguities and helps my company manage operational efficiencies well."

More VMware Aria Operations for Logs pros

Cons

"I hope to see improvements in Graylog for more interactivity, user-friendliness, and creating alerts. The initial setup is complex."

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

"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 like to see some kind of visualization included in Graylog."

"More customization is always useful."

"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."

"The infrastructure cost is the main issue. I like the rest. If the infrastructure costs could be lower, it would be fantastic."

More Graylog cons

"The solution is a very good tool, but it has a lot of limitations. One of the main issues is around how you define your retention policy, for instance, in Log Insight. It doesn't have it. You can't define a log retention policy. You also can't define the destination or location for your logs. All of the logs are in one index or one bucket."

"The response time and quality need improvement. It takes too long to prove a problem and get a solution."

"The pricing of the solution could be improved."

"The tool is expensive."

"Paid or free does not matter, but it is complex to find good training material for vRealize Log Insight."

"Technical support should be improved."

"Log Insight should be better at dealing with audits and security logs. We use another product called QRadar for that."

"Documentation is lacking, including some guide as to how to use the expressions. It is not clear how to look for a log, for example. Some examples in the documentation might be helpful. I think that VMware had good documentation, but it's no longer hosted. The documentation is not as easy to understand as it was before."

More VMware Aria Operations for Logs cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We're using the Community edition."

"Consider Enterprise support if you have atypical needs or setup requirements."

"If you want something that works and do not have the money for Splunk or QRadar, take Graylog."

"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."

"Having paid official support is wise for projects."

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

"I use the free version of Graylog."

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

More Graylog pricing and cost advice

"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."

"It is not cheap. But it is worth it."

"I am not sure what the exact cost is. However, I believe the vRealize suite costs $2,500.00 per year."

"Pricing could always be lower. If it were free, I would be more satisfied."

"Pricing is good because it is part of the suite package. It comes in a bundle for us."

"I rate the product's price a six on a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive."

"The product's price is reasonable, but when it comes to SQL licensing, it's a bit expensive."

"The license cost for any other monitoring tool is too high compared to this product."

More VMware Aria Operations for Logs pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

17%

Comms Service Provider

10%

University

Educational Organization

Computer Software Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Government

12%

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Graylog?

The product is scalable. The solution is stable.

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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?

An improvement I would suggest is in Graylog's user interface, such as allowing for font size adjustments. A potential enhancement could be the integration with Ollama to run large language models ...

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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.

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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...

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Graylog

June 2025

Download Graylog product report

Buyer's Guide

VMware Aria Operations for Logs

June 2025

Download VMware Aria Operations for Logs product report

Also Known As

Graylog2

vRealize Log Insight

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.

Graylog

Manage data at scale with centralized log management, deep operational visibility and intelligent analytics for troubleshooting and auditing across private, hybrid and multi-cloud environments.

VMware

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

Buyer's Guide

Graylog vs. VMware Aria Operations for Logs

June 2025

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