Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Amazon CloudWatch vs syslog-ng comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

Amazon CloudWatch
Ranking in Log Management
13th
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
42
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Monitoring Software (9th)
syslog-ng
Ranking in Log Management
16th
Average Rating
8.6
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2024, in the Log Management category, the mindshare of Amazon CloudWatch is 1.0%, down from 1.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of syslog-ng is 2.9%, up from 1.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Log Management
 

Featured Reviews

Prakash-Kumar - PeerSpot reviewer
Jun 17, 2024
Extremely helpful for automation and offers the ability to set up alerts and notifications for the metrics and do a lot of automation once you have the notifications
CloudWatch is extremely helpful for automation and other things for experienced users, but it's not very intuitive. It doesn't have drag-and-drop functionality to trigger actions from notifications. It's very capable, but it requires expert knowledge to leverage that capability. So, for new or basic users, it's a bit complex to understand how it works. Basic users can see what is happening in the console, but building automation and other things requires expert knowledge. Improvement in log patterns and metrics: There are a lot of things. For example, there are log patterns and metric patterns. But if you have to do anomaly detection, I think the latest version added that, but they didn't have it before. Users can build it; Users can stream the log, build log analytics, and do anomaly detection, but it is not very straightforward. It's a very powerful tool, but you need expert knowledge to do those things. Region-specific service puts certain limits: Also, CloudWatch is a very region-specific service. People struggle with that, for example, if you have an application distributed in different geographies like Europe, India, and the USA. There is no way to aggregate CloudWatch logs in one place for workloads in every region. You need a third-party tool to get a holistic view of your application. CloudWatch has the data, but you need advanced skills to aggregate it and create insights. Suggestions for additional functionality for CloudWatch: Cloudwatch needs better built-in analytics capability. CloudWatch has a lot of data, but it's difficult to gain insights unless you stream it to a third-party log analytics tool. If there were built-in capabilities to analyze the data, that would be great.
SN
Mar 1, 2023
Consistent in delivering data, stable, and scalable
Syslog is mainly used for network logs, and it can be configured to support a number of ports for an IP. From a scalability perspective, a front-end load balancer or other third-party elements can be used to route traffic to syslog. However, syslog will always look for the standard log format. If the format is not up to the standard syslog level, the load balancer will add its own IP to the log and forward it to syslog. To ensure integrity, the log should remain the same, without any changes to the server A IP. If there is a change in the login server A, the load balancer will add its own IP or hostname to the log and forward it to syslog. To address this issue, further investigation is needed to enable the product to overcome this scenario. We have 12 technicians supporting the platform.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"You can enable alarms and metrics, and it has robust integration with AWS services. You can also trigger events. For example, if the CPU utilization is above 80%, it can launch a new instance for you."
"The alarms are one thing I love about AWS CloudWatch. It has alerts that notify us when resource use is approaching the limit."
"It is a stable solution...I rate the technical support a ten out of ten."
"Amazon CloudWatch is a cheap and easy-to-use solution."
"Scheduling is a valuable feature."
"The most valuable feature of Amazon CloudWatch is intrusion prevention."
"The solution is easy to use."
"The product can be integrated with AWS very easily."
"The ability to extract and store the logs is the most valuable feature of syslog-ng."
"Syslog-ng has built-in features that we can use to create alerts for a SIEM solution. It isn't a true SIEM solution, but it's sufficient for the time being."
"Syslog-ng provides easy access to all my logs. It helps me show managers and other clients precisely where an incident occurred. I also like it because you can integrate syslog-ng with multiple solutions to allow real-time monitoring."
"Syslog-ng has a separate config file in addition to the core configuration."
"For us, the most valuable feature is the use of compound search for searching logs at a specific time, by a specific user, or specific behavior."
 

Cons

"The dashboard of Amazon CloudWatch is not very customizable right now."
"The configuration capabilities could be better."
"I would like to monitor inbound and outbound transfer. I would also like to control the traffic for load balancing."
"The drill-down aspect on the dashboard of the solution needs improvement. We get a very good high-level overview, but when we drill down, it becomes a little less clear. We have given this feedback to AWS as well and hope they will improve this in the future."
"The monitoring part and GUI are areas in Amazon CloudWatch that have shortcomings currently and can be considered for improvements in the future."
"There's a learning curve with Amazon CloudWatch since we have to learn to write the queries to extract the keys and logs."
"The product should provide more features."
"Amazon CloudWatch's pricing needs improvement."
"There is always the potential for additional integration and protocol extensions."
"Syslog-ng has built-in features that we can use to create alerts for a SIEM solution. It isn't a true SIEM solution, but it's sufficient for the time being."
"There is room for improvement in terms of observability."
"It's hard to find people who know how to use syslog-ng. I often find problems with configurations, and solutions aren't integrated correctly with syslog-ng. For example, there might be data with extra decimals, or the collector agents are incorrectly named. It isn't a problem with the solution; it's a lack of professionals."
"The filtering has room for improvement."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is a free-of-charge service."
"The product's cost is relatively inexpensive."
"The solution is expensive."
"Its pricing is reasonable. It is sometimes tricky, but it is reasonable as compared to others."
"The pricing can be considered reasonable, especially when already operating on a cloud platform."
"What's were using is the free service of Amazon CloudWatch, so they're not charging us. As for hidden fees, we're not aware of them because we're using what our clients provided us."
"I consider it as a medium-priced solution."
"Amazon CloudWatch is a cheap solution."
"Syslog-ng is a free open-source solution."
"Syslog-ng is open-source."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Log Management solutions are best for your needs.
800,688 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
19%
Financial Services Firm
17%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Healthcare Company
5%
Computer Software Company
14%
Government
14%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon CloudWatch?
Amazon CloudWatch is a native service of AWS, and the bill is included with the other services in AWS. We receive a collective bill. The tool is not expensive. I rate the pricing an eight out of ten.
What needs improvement with Amazon CloudWatch?
The integration with third-party tools must be made easier.
What do you like most about syslog-ng?
For us, the most valuable feature is the use of compound search for searching logs at a specific time, by a specific user, or specific behavior.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for syslog-ng?
The pricing is in the middle. I would rate the pricing a six out of ten, with one being expensive and ten being cheap.
What needs improvement with syslog-ng?
There is room for improvement in terms of observability. Additionally, a possible new feature could be Kafka integration.
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

AirAsia, Airbnb, Aircel, APUS, Avazu, Casa & Video, Futbol Club Barcelona (FCBarcelona), National Taiwan University, redBus
Tecnocom, University of Victoria, University of Exeter, Datapath
Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon CloudWatch vs. syslog-ng and other solutions. Updated: July 2024.
800,688 professionals have used our research since 2012.