Elastic Stack vs syslog-ng comparison

Elastic and One Identity are both solutions in the Log Management category. Elastic is ranked #14 with an average rating of 7.8, while One Identity is ranked #15 with an average rating of 8.6. Elastic holds a 4.4% mindshare in Log Management, compared to One Identity’s 3.1% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Elastic users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of One Identity users who would recommend it.

Elastic Stack

Read 15 Elastic Stack reviews

3,324 Views
3,130 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

syslog-ng

Read 5 syslog-ng reviews

4,496 Views
3,575 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Elastic Stack

syslog-ng

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 18, 2024

Syslog-ng and Elastic Stack are prominent solutions in the log management and analysis space. Syslog-ng stands out in pricing and support satisfaction, whereas Elastic Stack offers superior features that many users consider worth the investment.

Features: Syslog-ng is known for its reliability, speed in data processing, and flexible configuration. Elastic Stack is recognized for its comprehensive analytics, powerful search capabilities, and wide plugin integration.

Room for Improvement: Syslog-ng could improve its integration capabilities, user interface, and scalability. Elastic Stack may enhance its complex cluster management, reduce resource consumption, and simplify its learning curve.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Syslog-ng is easier to deploy with helpful support services. Elastic Stack requires more complex deployment and often expert support, with its community playing a vital role in resolving issues.

Pricing and ROI: Syslog-ng offers lower initial setup costs with a quick return on investment. Elastic Stack, while higher in price, justifies the cost with advanced features, though achieving ROI is typically more gradual.

To learn more, read our detailed Elastic Stack vs. syslog-ng Report (Updated: January 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Elastic Stack vs. syslog-ng

January 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

Elastic Stack

Ranking in Log Management

14th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

syslog-ng

Ranking in Log Management

15th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the Log Management category, the mindshare of Elastic Stack is 4.4%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of syslog-ng is 3.1%, up from 2.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Log Management

Featured Reviews

Mahesh Ramichetty

Senior Solution Architect at a consultancy with 11-50 employees

A stable product that can be fine-tuned easily

Elastic Stack provides all sorts of things, so it provides Elasticsearch for the transformations into a specific format, and pipelines can be defined for distributed applications along with the logs that come in the JSON format, which is clean. It's only the enhancements or the security that the product lacks and needs to be enhanced. I don't think further enhancement of the features needs to be added to the solution because it is already equivalent to a monitoring or alerting system, like Dynatrace and other tools. Some developments in the area of AI, which Elastic Stack is currently working on, should be fine in terms of the enhancements. Whenever some critical issue happens, there should be some kind of a co-pilot that helps resolve the issue. The tool should learn from its own previous issues. If you take Databricks, you see that it provides a co-pilot for Python, so a similar kind of development in Elastic Stack would be a real asset for it. AI would be considered a good way to enable the tool further for more in 2024, and even a beta launch would be helpful. If you take any sort of cloud-native monitoring product, like Azure Monitor or AWS CloudWatch, you see that such products don't provide much of the insights. If you go with Azure Monitor for any sort of ML models to be there, Sentinel needs to be used from Azure, which is very costly. AI-enablement would be a big improvement in Elastic Stack. Everyone in the monitoring space, including Dynatrace and New Relic, has lately been discussing AI, but it doesn't seem to be coming out. If there is room for an ML model in Elastic Stack, then it would be good.

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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.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The detection rules in Elastic Stack are the most valuable feature. The search capabilities are excellent and fast. As we collect logs from workstations and devices, the detection rules run on top of the logs and detect any suspicious activity, raising alerts accordingly. Integration with Elastic Stack depends on the specific integration. Elastic provides some bridging integrations that make it easy, but require custom integration. Most integrations are simple, but customization can be challenging because we need to do some parsing. There's something called Elastic Common Schema, and we need to parse the source logs to match this schema, which can be a bit challenging."

"It supports various integrations. It's open source and has excellent community support."

"Elastic Stack has made a positive impact as we can now see our logs."

"I think the ecosystem is well supported, and for logs, it was faster compared to our previous previous log management."

"The machine learning capabilities are valuable."

"The tool is huge, and it performs brilliantly. I tested it for malware, and within two weeks of launching, the product alerted me about a network intrusion. This was a tough test for it, but it performed admirably. The alerting system is excellent, and searching through logs is incredibly efficient. What's impressive is that all three products or options are integrated into one solution. This means I don't need separate logging, monitoring, or antivirus solutions."

"Prior to the latest updates, data lake management was a standout feature. The hybrid capability for on-premise and cloud integration was also crucial. Now, with Elastic Defense, the agent simplifies security monitoring, making it a key asset."

"I have experienced a return on investment from the use of the solution."

More Elastic Stack pros

"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."

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

"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 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."

Cons

"There could be better documentation."

"Elastic Stack's search capabilities can be challenging, especially when searching for precise data from past years, such as two or ten years ago. Its indexing performance for exact data retrieval may decrease as the data volume grows. Therefore, I believe there is room for improvement in the product's search functionality. It needs to improve its pricing as well."

"Improving integration capabilities, especially with authentication systems, firewalls, and security controls, is a crucial area for improvement in Elastic Stack. Additionally, enhancing functionality to handle large Yara queries more efficiently would be beneficial, as many EDR solutions can run such queries faster than Elastic Stack's current limitations."

"Support could be improved. The error code is not helpful. We have to ask for it or pass it on to community forums."

"When people try to move the data from another source to Elastic Stack for visualization, they face challenges when connecting to Elastic Stack from such different sources."

"Improvements are needed in the solution in areas like SOAR and TIP, where there are certain shortcomings."

"AI-enablement would be a big improvement in Elastic Stack...If there is room for an ML model in Elastic Stack, then it would be good."

"The implementation of dashboards in the solution needs to be made easier...I had some issues with the ports and configuration since it was kind of complex to implement with Docker."

More Elastic Stack cons

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

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

"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."

"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."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"If I compare Elastic Stack to the other products in the market, I would say that the tool is available at a competitive price."

"We are using the open-source community version of the product."

"The pricing is reasonable."

"I used the open-source version of Elastic Stack, because of which I did not have to pay anything."

"Ultimately, the pricing depends upon the capacity planning that the enterprise architect does."

"It depends on the specifics, but generally, Elastic is economical for certain use cases."

"I rate the solution's pricing a six out of ten."

"The product is expensive."

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

"Syslog-ng is open-source."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Comms Service Provider

Government

14%

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Elastic Stack?

The tool is huge, and it performs brilliantly. I tested it for malware, and within two weeks of launching, the product alerted me about a network intrusion. This was a tough test for it, but it per...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Elastic Stack?

We use Elastic Stack's open source version, so it is free for us.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Elastic Stack?

Elastic Stack needs more features similar to other SIEM tools such as Sentinel or the ability to create automations. Additionally, it should facilitate easier manual integration.

See all answers

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.

See all answers

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.

See all answers

What needs improvement with syslog-ng?

There is room for improvement in terms of observability. Additionally, a possible new feature could be Kafka integration.

See all answers

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Product Reports

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Elastic Stack

January 2025

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Log Management

January 2025

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Elastic

One Identity

Overview

Elastic Stack is a comprehensive tool for log management, observability, indexing, and security, widely adopted for managing logs, alert creation, SIEM, SOC, and threat analysis. It integrates with CloudStrike and Endpoint Security, enhancing search capabilities and Application Performance Monitoring.

Elastic Stack offers powerful solutions for logging, data storage, and visualization with Kibana. It allows MSSPs to efficiently manage security and assists companies with data analysis. It's known for its easy implementation, scalability, real-time monitoring, and extensive integrations. The open-source nature and community support add significant value, making it a popular choice across industries. While highly capable, there is a need for enhancement in dashboard implementation, data integration, and certain advanced features. Licensing, compatibility, and cost-related improvements can further elevate its efficacy.

What are the key features of Elastic Stack?

Powerful Search Capabilities: Offers robust, efficient searching across vast datasets
Scalability: Easily handles large volumes of data
Anomaly Detection: Identifies irregular patterns in data
Machine Learning: Enhances data analysis with intelligent insights
Real-Time Monitoring: Provides up-to-date monitoring of applications and systems
Extensive Integration: Supports diverse tools and solutions

What benefits should users consider?

Ease of Implementation: Quick setup and integration into existing systems
Robust Security: Comprehensive monitoring and analysis capabilities
Community Support: Ongoing improvements and guidance from a dedicated community
Hybrid Deployment: Flexibility in using both cloud and on-premise solutions

In healthcare, Elastic Stack enhances database search capabilities, aiding in patient record management and data retrieval. Managed Security Service Providers use it for comprehensive security management, integrating it with tools like firewalls and authentication systems. Companies benefit from its application in Application Performance Monitoring and its flexibility in adapting to hybrid environments.

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.

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

Tecnocom, University of Victoria, University of Exeter, Datapath

Buyer's Guide

Elastic Stack vs. syslog-ng

January 2025

Free Report: Elastic Stack vs. syslog-ng

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