Elastic Stack vs syslog-ng comparison

Elastic and One Identity are both solutions in the Log Management category. Elastic is ranked #9 with an average rating of 7.8, while One Identity is ranked #17 with an average rating of 10.0. Elastic holds a 4.0% mindshare in Log Management, compared to One Identity’s 2.0% 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 17 Elastic Stack reviews

5,489 Views
5,489 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

syslog-ng

Read 7 syslog-ng reviews

3,626 Views
3,626 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: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Elastic Stack vs. syslog-ng

December 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

9th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

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 January 2026, in the Log Management category, the mindshare of Elastic Stack is 4.0%, down from 4.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of syslog-ng is 2.0%, 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 (%)
Elastic Stack	4.0%
syslog-ng	2.0%
Other	94.0%

Log Management

Featured Reviews

Lakshmi Bodepu

Senior Consultant at Skillfield

Offers robust out-of-the-box integrations and streamlines logging processes effortlessly

There are improvements needed for Elastic Stack. It is mostly based on Lucene, and the heart of Elastic Stack is Lucene, which has some limitations. Anything built on top of Lucene often feels an add-on, and that includes vector databases. Elastic Stack can store vector embeddings as well and perform AI and machine learning tasks out of the box without excessive configuration. The main improvements involve increasing speed and compression capabilities; I have seen databases that claim to achieve significantly better compression. While Elastic Stack can manage vast amounts of data, if the mapping is not specified correctly, the indexing time can be slow, especially with many events per second. Improper mapping usually means that every document received gets indexed for all fields, which is not desired. Elastic consultants typically optimize this, but out of the box, as data volume increases, scaling becomes necessary. They are working on these improvements in new versions.

Read full review

Oliver Castellucchio

IT Infrastructure & Cloud Security Manager at Thux

Has ensured compliance by centralizing log data and supporting secure connections

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 think we can use other features of this tool in the future. In syslog-ng, I think a GUI would be beneficial. I am unsure if the premium module has a GUI to administer it.

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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

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

"It is a very scalable solution...I didn't face any problem with this scalability part of the solution since we only have a few pieces of equipment in our company."

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

"The biggest strength of Elastic Stack is its brilliant archiving capabilities."

"We can group a lot of alarms into one automation alarm supervision. The alarm supervision allows us to put the alarm under the same. It's quite helpful for us. We used that to suppress our alarms. Elastic already provides the agent. It is easy to integrate Elastic Stack with other devices and vendors."

"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."

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

"The only beneficial aspect of Elastic Stack is that it's open source."

More Elastic Stack pros

"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 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 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."

"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."

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

"What I appreciate most about syslog-ng is its configuration; its C-style config is much easier to understand, read, and write than other popular solutions such as syslog or rsyslog."

Cons

"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."

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

"It should facilitate easier manual integration."

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

"The main issue related to Elastic Stack is in the area of its licensing."

"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."

"The stability of the solution is rated as three or four out of ten as we frequently encounter issues."

More Elastic Stack cons

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

"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."

"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."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product is expensive."

"The pricing is reasonable."

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

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

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

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

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

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

"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

12%

Financial Services Firm

Government

Comms Service Provider

Government

12%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	10
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	6

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

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?

My experience with Elastic Stack pricing indicates that it is node-based. While I do not have complete pricing details, they are available online. If I choose Elastic Cloud, it includes licensing a...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Elastic Stack?

See all answers

What needs improvement with syslog-ng?

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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

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Compared 7% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Elastic Stack

December 2025

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Buyer's Guide

syslog-ng

December 2025

Download syslog-ng product report

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.

Elastic

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

Information Not Available

Tecnocom, University of Victoria, University of Exeter, Datapath

Buyer's Guide

Elastic Stack vs. syslog-ng

December 2025

Free Report: Elastic Stack vs. syslog-ng

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