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 #13 with an average rating of 8.2. Graylog holds a 6.4% 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

8,998 Views
8,998 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

VMware Aria Operations for ...

Read 28 VMware Aria Operations for Logs reviews

2,105 Views
2,084 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: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Graylog vs. VMware Aria Operations for Logs

July 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

13th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Log Management category, the mindshare of Graylog is 6.4%, up from 6.0% 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.

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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

"Message forwarding through the in-built module."

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

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

"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."

"Allowing us to set up alerts and integrate with platforms we already use, such as Slack and OpsGenie to alert users of these errors proactively, is also a very useful feature."

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

"The solution's most valuable feature is its new interface."

"Open source and user friendly."

More Graylog pros

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

"The virtualization solution supports data center virtualization, network and security."

"It allows us to gain a comprehensive overview of our infrastructure."

"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 root cause analysis feature is very valuable."

"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."

"It gives the customer a quick overview, so they don't have to dig. There's a clear dashboard with many sensors in a single space. He gets a helicopter view of his environment, but he can investigate further if there are serious issues. It's pretty user-friendly."

"The setup and installation are very easy."

More VMware Aria Operations for Logs pros

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."

"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."

"It would be great if Graylog could provide a better Python package in order to make it easier to use for the Python community."

"I would like to see a default dashboard widget that shows the topology of the clusters defined for the graylog install."

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

"We ran into problems with Elasticsearch throwing a circuit-breaking exception due to field data size being too large. It turned out that the heap size directly impacted this size in a high-throughput environment, causing unexplained instability in Graylog. We were able to troubleshoot on the Elasticsearch size, but we should have been able to reference some minimum requirements for Graylog to know that our settings weren't sufficient."

"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."

"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 cons

"Log retention should have more options for user control."

"The monitoring landscape is getting bigger. When it comes to infrastructure monitoring, we need more visibility. VMware needs to integrate more related applications and third-party products. That would make it more appealing to an audience beyond the VMware team."

"Integration with other vendors is something that could be improved, they could add more vendors."

"The tool does not provide a centralized pane for monitoring."

"The solution should be more user-friendly. The user interface and dashboard could be simplified."

"The product's price falls on the higher end of the spectrum, making it an area of concern."

"The dashboard needs to be improved because this is what I need to monitor my infrastructure."

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

More VMware Aria Operations for Logs cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

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

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

"I use the free version of Graylog."

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

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

"We're using the Community edition."

More Graylog pricing and cost advice

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

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

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

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

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

"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."

"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."

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

11%

Government

University

Computer Software Company

13%

Government

11%

Financial Services Firm

11%

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

August 2025

Download Graylog product report

Buyer's Guide

VMware Aria Operations for Logs

July 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

July 2025

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