Graylog vs Grafana Cloud
A detailed comparison to help you choose between Graylog and Grafana Cloud.
Quick Verdict
3.4/5
Graylog
0 reviews
3.9/5
Grafana Cloud
0 reviews
Grafana Cloud is rated higher (3.9 vs 3.4). Graylog is an open source log management platform. Centralized log collection, search, and alerting. Used by enterprises self-hosting their logging infrastructure. Commercial cloud option available. Grafana Cloud provides managed Grafana, Prometheus, Loki (logs), Tempo (traces), and k6 (load testing). Free tier includes 10,000 metrics series. Open source self-hosting also available.
Graylog Centralized log management and analysis for infrastructure teams | Grafana Cloud Open source observability platform — cloud and self-hosted | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Rating | 3.4 (0 reviews) | 3.9 (0 reviews)✓ |
| Pricing model | freemium | freemium |
| Starting price | Free tier available | Free tier available |
| Best for | Ops-capable infrastructure and security teams wanting centralized log analysis and SIEM without per-GB licensing | Teams wanting a managed, self-hostable observability stack with a genuinely useful free tier and metrics, logs, and traces under one pane |
| Features | ||
| IPv6 | ||
| DDoS protection | ||
| Automated backups | ||
| Snapshots | ||
| Managed option | ||
| Bare metal | ||
| GPU available | ||
| S3-compatible | ||
| Hourly billing | ||
| Free tier | ||
| Tags | ||
| Tags | free tieropen sourceself hostableapi access | free tieropen sourceself hostableapi accessteam features |
| Visit Graylog → | Visit Grafana Cloud → | |
Graylog
Pros
- + Graylog Open is free with no volume restrictions — self-hosted logging without per-GB billing
- + Full data ownership and residency control; runs on your own hardware or private cloud
- + Long track record (project since 2009) with active community and solid documentation
- + Commercial editions let you stay on the same deployment as you grow into SIEM use cases
Cons
- - SSPL license is source-available, not OSI open source — restricts offering it as a service
- - Enterprise/Security/Cloud pricing is quote-based with no public calculator
- - Self-hosting carries real operational load: OpenSearch/Data Node, MongoDB, index and retention management
- - Audit logging and SIEM content sit in paid editions, not Open
Grafana Cloud
Pros
- + Open source core (AGPLv3) across Grafana/Mimir/Loki/Tempo/Pyroscope — a real self-host exit
- + Permanent free tier: 10k metric series, 50 GB logs/traces/profiles, 500 k6 VUh, no credit card
- + Public Pro pricing ($19/mo platform fee, from $6.50/1k series) with automatic volume discounts
- + 42 stack regions on AWS, Azure, and GCP including a Federal Cloud option
Cons
- - Usage-based billing punishes metric cardinality and log verbosity — bills can spike on app-side mistakes
- - PromQL/LogQL and label design have a real learning curve
- - SLA is 99.5% (paid plans only) — below hyperscaler commitments
- - Some enterprise RBAC/audit/reporting features require a quote-based Enterprise plan
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