Amazon CloudWatch vs syslog-ng comparison

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and One Identity are both solutions in the Log Management category. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is ranked #16 with an average rating of 7.9, while One Identity is ranked #17 with an average rating of 10.0. Amazon Web Services (AWS) holds a 2.1% mindshare in Log Management, compared to One Identity’s 2.4% mindshare. Additionally, 90% of Amazon Web Services (AWS) users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of One Identity users who would recommend it.

Amazon CloudWatch

Read 48 Amazon CloudWatch reviews

4,127 Views
2,435 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

syslog-ng

Read 7 syslog-ng reviews

3,933 Views
3,933 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Amazon CloudWatch

syslog-ng

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 9, 2024

Amazon CloudWatch and syslog-ng are two prominent tools in the log management and monitoring category. Amazon CloudWatch holds an upper hand in integration with AWS, whereas syslog-ng offers greater flexibility and supports diverse logging protocols.

Features: Amazon CloudWatch offers seamless integration with AWS services, making it ideal for users deeply embedded in the AWS ecosystem. Its real-time monitoring capabilities allow for immediate insights and actions on data. Additionally, Amazon CloudWatch provides a wide range of metrics, supporting various AWS services. Syslog-ng, on the other hand, provides flexibility through its support for numerous log formats and protocols, catering to complex and diverse logging requirements. It allows customization and scalability to fit various organizational needs. Its open-source nature and adaptability also stand out as significant advantages.

Room for Improvement: Feedback on Amazon CloudWatch points to the need for enhanced dashboard customization for better user experience and a simpler pricing model to avoid unexpected costs. Further, improvements in handling non-AWS logs could expand its use. Syslog-ng users, while praising its flexibility, suggest improvements in the comprehensiveness of its documentation to aid new users. Enhancements in user interface design can lead to a more intuitive experience, and broader community support can be beneficial for better user interaction.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Amazon CloudWatch provides streamlined deployment for users within AWS, though those unfamiliar with AWS may face challenges. Its customer service is usually prompt and helpful for resolving issues. Syslog-ng, known for its versatility, can be deployed across various systems but often demands more significant initial setup time and expertise. Customer service experiences with syslog-ng vary, with many users relying on community forums for support.

Pricing and ROI: Amazon CloudWatch follows AWS's pricing structure, which, while straightforward, often leads to unpredictable costs due to usage variables. Despite this, it provides solid ROI for businesses fully integrated into AWS. Syslog-ng is perceived as cost-effective, with a pricing model that aligns with budget-conscious environments seeking high versatility. Its ROI is enhanced by the flexibility and range of features it offers.

To learn more, read our detailed Amazon CloudWatch vs. syslog-ng Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Amazon CloudWatch vs. syslog-ng

September 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

Amazon CloudWatch

Ranking in Log Management

16th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (13th), Cloud Monitoring Software (11th)

syslog-ng

Ranking in Log Management

17th

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

3.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Log Management category, the mindshare of Amazon CloudWatch is 2.1%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of syslog-ng is 2.4%, down from 2.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Log Management Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Amazon CloudWatch	2.1%
syslog-ng	2.4%
Other	95.5%

Log Management

Featured Reviews

Azam S M

Infrastructure Lead at Danat Fz LLC

Has provided reliable monitoring and alerting through extensive metric tracking and dashboard configuration

Amazon CloudWatch itself provides a lot of data. However, for visualization, we need to use third-party tools. We are in a process of integrating Grafana, Loki, and Prometheus to have better visualization on Amazon CloudWatch. We are also integrating Grafana with the application itself to get the application data and logs. Alternatively, there is AWS Kinesis and Glue where you can scrape the logs and have visualization, but a more easy option is Grafana. If you want to get a proper visual representation to see what is happening, then you need to integrate a third-party tool. Amazon CloudWatch has all the data, but to see what is happening, you need some third-party tool.

Read full review

RyanVargas

Senior Director and Senior Systems Engineer (Dual Role), IT Infrastructure and Security at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees

It's a user-friendly open-source solution that can replace or augment a commercial product in some cases

I rate syslog-ng 10 out of 10. It's free and easy to use. It has built-in tools that help us index the various logs sent to it. It's a solid log product. If you're looking for a SIEM solution, syslog-ng will work as a stopgap measure at beginning of the project. It can also work as an injector for a true SIEM solution. You can send all the logs to syslog-ng and forward all the data to the SIEM solution after you've cleaned up the data and got the pertinent information. It's a good front end for a commercial SIEM solution, which becomes more expensive as you load more data into it. I would highly recommend syslog-ng for that use case. However, if you lack the expertise, you might need to go with a cloud-based SIEM instead. You need some in-house expertise or an outside consultant to manage it and set it up.

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 solution offers very detailed metrics for their services."

"The alarms are one thing I love about AWS CloudWatch. It has alerts that notify us when resource use is approaching the limit."

"Every time we get an alarm or have an incident, CloudWatch is always there. We use it not only for resources we've spun up in the cloud, but also for some of our on-premises resources."

"CloudWatch immediately hooks up and connects to the KPIs and all the metrics."

"We use Amazon CloudWatch for logging."

"We have found the pricing to be reasonable."

"The monitoring feature is valuable."

"The detection is the most valuable feature."

More Amazon CloudWatch pros

"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."

"We chose syslog-ng because it is easy to install, easy to maintain, easy to update, and due to the fact that all data arrive in raw format, we can manipulate it as we want."

"The ability to extract and store the logs is the most valuable feature of 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."

"Syslog-ng has a separate config file in addition to the core configuration."

"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."

Cons

"Better reporting is always something needed. That could be an answer to just about anything. But you always want better reporting, better dashboards, things that are just more dynamic and more accessible."

"For monitoring applications or for APM, CloudWatch has some limitations. You cannot monitor application performance from CloudWatch, and you have to go for a third-party tool."

"There is room for improvement in the pricing, because they have a premium version, but it's not really a premium version. It's just an enhanced monitoring version, and it can be a bit expensive depending on your usage."

"The monitoring part and GUI are areas in Amazon CloudWatch that have shortcomings currently and can be considered for improvements in the future."

"Improvement of SSSD logs would be beneficial."

"I think something that can be improved are the alerts and alerting mechanism based on no rejects. We want to have it more flexible and that is one of the key things that is required."

"It is hard to configure; it is not a straightforward tool."

"Adding conditional expressions would enhance its functionality."

More Amazon CloudWatch cons

"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."

"In syslog-ng, I think a GUI would be beneficial. I am unsure if the premium module has a GUI to administer it."

"The filtering has room for improvement."

"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."

"There is always the potential for additional integration and protocol extensions."

"There is room for improvement in terms of observability."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing can be considered reasonable, especially when already operating on a cloud platform."

"The price of Amazon CloudWatch is reasonable. When the rate of data collection is done the price will increase. The price is less than other solutions."

"Amazon CloudWatch has very cheap pricing, and it hardly costs my company $25-$30 a month for fifty systems, so it's pretty affordable."

"It’s an open-source solution."

"Its pricing is reasonable. It is sometimes tricky, but it is reasonable as compared to others."

"The price is okay for me."

"I consider it as a medium-priced solution."

"The pricing model is pay-as-you-go so you have to be mindful of usage to manage costs."

More Amazon CloudWatch pricing and cost advice

"Syslog-ng is open-source."

"Syslog-ng is a free open-source solution."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

16%

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

10%

University

Government

13%

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	17
Midsize Enterprise	9
Large Enterprise	24

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	3
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	3

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Amazon CloudWatch?

The monitoring features are valuable.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon CloudWatch?

Overall, the pricing of Amazon CloudWatch is very expensive.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Amazon CloudWatch?

Apart from traceability of network resources, Amazon CloudWatch needs to be more interoperable with other tools because many companies are starting to use AI-based dashboards. When using third-part...

See all answers

What needs improvement with syslog-ng?

We currently do not use that feature. We currently have just an open-source release, not a premium release. My boss has indicated that he wants to buy a premium syslog-ng version next month. I thin...

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What is your primary use case for syslog-ng?

In Italy, we have to be compliant with the Garante for privacy. We have to log every login, logout, or login failure made by a system administrator. We store all syslog data of the infrastructure. ...

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering syslog-ng?

When it comes to parsing, I can parse both structured and unstructured data, though our data are only structured. Currently, we collect all data we receive as raw data. Each file is stored for each...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Dynatrace vs Amazon CloudWatch

Compared 6% of the time

Datadog vs Amazon CloudWatch

Compared 5% of the time

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Compared 30% of the time

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Compared 21% of the time

Grafana Loki vs syslog-ng

Compared 9% of the time

Cribl vs syslog-ng

Compared 6% of the time

Splunk Enterprise Security vs syslog-ng

Compared 2% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Amazon CloudWatch

October 2025

Download Amazon CloudWatch product report

Buyer's Guide

syslog-ng

October 2025

Download syslog-ng product report

Overview

Amazon CloudWatch integrates seamlessly with AWS, providing real-time monitoring and alerting features. Its interface supports task automation, enhancing troubleshooting and analytics capabilities, while offering strong security and scalability at a cost-effective rate.

Amazon CloudWatch is an impactful platform for monitoring AWS resources and managing application performance. It simplifies infrastructure performance monitoring by providing comprehensive analytics capabilities, including application insights and event scheduling. Users appreciate CloudWatch for its detailed metrics, dashboards, and support in issuing alerts to detect anomalies. It efficiently tracks performance, optimizes resource utilization, and ensures service availability. CloudWatch is recognized for its robust alerting features and integration with other AWS services, further supporting its resource monitoring capabilities. However, there is room for improvement in dashboard customization, log streaming speed, and integration with non-AWS services. Enhancements in API integration, machine learning features, and support for third-party tools are also desired.

What features does Amazon CloudWatch offer?

Seamless Integration: Works effortlessly with AWS for cohesive service management.
Advanced Metrics: Provides detailed monitoring of CPU, memory, and more.
Real-time Monitoring: Offers up-to-the-minute alerts on infrastructure status.
Dashboards: User-friendly and informative for quick insights.
Automation: Supports task automation for efficient troubleshooting.

What benefits does Amazon CloudWatch provide?

Cost-effectiveness: Efficient resource monitoring without high costs.
Scalability: Easily adapts to growing infrastructure needs.
Security: Strong protocols for safe monitoring activities.
Improved Performance: Enhances application insights and operational efficiency.
Operational Insights: Provides comprehensive logging and performance analysis.

Industries implementing Amazon CloudWatch often focus on optimizing IT infrastructure. Companies in sectors like finance and e-commerce rely on its monitoring and alerting capabilities to ensure service uptime and performance. The platform's automation and analytics features empower teams to proactively manage performance and detect potential issues promptly.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Optimizing SIEM
syslog-ng is the log management solution that improves the performance of your SIEM solution by reducing the amount and improving the quality of data feeding your SIEM.

Rapid search and troubleshooting
With syslog-ng Store Box, you can find the answer. Search billions of logs in seconds using full text queries with Boolean operators to pinpoint critical logs.

Meeting compliance requirements
syslog-ng Store Box provides secure, tamper-proof storage and custom reporting to demonstrate compliance.

Big data ingestion
syslog-ng can deliver data from a wide variety of sources to Hadoop, Elasticsearch, MongoDB, and Kafka as well as many others.

Universal log collection and routing
syslog-ng flexibly routes log data from X sources to Y destinations. Instead of deploying multiple agents on hosts, organizations can unify their log data collection and management.

Secure data archive
syslog-ng Store Box provides automated archiving, tamper-proof encrypted storage, granular access controls to protect log data. The largest appliance can store up to 10TB of raw logs.

One Identity

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

Buyer's Guide

Amazon CloudWatch vs. syslog-ng

September 2025

Free Report: Amazon CloudWatch vs. syslog-ng

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