Splunk is an excellent tool. In fact, it’s one of the most encompassing, analytical, and widely used log-management software available.
The machine data analytics platform comes with its own SPL language for transforms, queries, visualizations, and statistical analysis. It’s also one of the most adaptable, flexible, and universal tools.
However, Splunk isn’t right for everyone, especially if you have a business that needs to monitor large data volumes. Thankfully, there are some better options on the market that can help you collect and centralize log data from a huge range of sources, with alerts, graphs, and other high-quality real-time monitoring capabilities.
Splunk has some drawbacks despite its feature-rich platform that make it a lousy option for businesses.
One of them is its high cost, which can be backbreaking for small and medium-sized businesses.
Plus, Splunk isn’t open source and has a slow search speed. Many developers have also raised concerns about its inability to handle large swaths of data and that it’s not as versatile as other tools in its category.
If you’re looking to switch from Splunk or want to check other options before making your decision, we’ve rounded up the 15 best Splunk alternatives you can pick from.
How To Choose The Best Splunk Alternatives
Splunk has several rivals, considering it’s not an open-source tool. However, you need to research multiple tools before opting for a paid subscription so that you find one that matches your business needs.
How do you get the best Splunk alternative? Check for the following:
- Log manager that rotates log files and monitors them in real-time
- Management system that creates a useful directory structure for storing log files
- Facility that sorts and filters log messages for analysis purposes
- Archive and recall logfiles option
- A demo account or free trial for a risk-free assessment period
- Value for your money through a comprehensive tool at a suitable price point
- Ability to have a common layout through consolidation of log messages
- Can ingest data in multiple formats from various sources
- Easy to set up and get going correctly
- Visualization capacities to present data on a graph, chart, or dashboard before analysis
- Ability to deploy the software on the cloud
- Scalability – the software should function for SMBs and large enterprises without struggle
Best Splunk Alternatives
1. SolarWinds Security Event Manager
SolarWinds Security Event Manager is a security, information, and event management (SIEM) tool that provides your business with next-generation analytics, detection, and response.
The software has centralized log collection so it will gather logs and apply threat intelligence to detect and respond to threats automatically.
The alerts are sent to you anytime there’s a security event, and they’re routed to your email for follow-up purposes.
SolarWinds comes with a dashboard, where you can see charts and graphs, automated threat detection and response, centralized log collection, notifications, and compliance reports.
With the dashboard view, you can see the events throughout your environment holistically through pie charts and graphs among other visualization options. This way, you can identify performance trends quickly like login failures by source machine for compromised machines.
Compliance reports help you audit your network and are regulated by PCI DSS, HIPAA, FISMA, SOX, GPG13, and GLBA.
It’s a good alternative because it can act as a log server, manager, and consolidator while providing a facility where you can view and sort messages before analyzing them. Plus, it can implement security scanning and you get a security monitor that would replace the functions in Splunk.
Explore more tools like SolarWinds.
2. Loggly
Loggly is a free log monitoring tool based on SaaS that can process large data volumes from any source. You can see log events in real-time from different sources including mobile apps, databases, cloud platforms, operating systems, and more.
The dashboard displays an overview of your systems performance across the environment with metrics that drill down to the request level.
You can collect and aggregate logs, view graphs and charts to visualize performance, and get alerts and reports so you can analyze better and know what’s happening in your environments.
The software alerts you through Microsoft Teams, Slack, PagerDuty and other Webhook-compatible tools. You can also change the time period of a chart using the time feature to spot more performance concerns or use the prebuilt templates to develop your own dashboard.
What makes Loggly better than Splunk is that it comes with a barebones free edition, which Splunk doesn’t provide. Plus, Loggly has several custom-built features that enhance search results making log search faster compared to Splunk, which is fast when searching for short time windows.
And while Splunk uses distributed tracing for events, performance issues, and failures, Loggly uses a common trace ID to isolate logs for specific requests, events, or transactions to give you a common view of events and impacted systems.
Loggly also generates log views based on their customized views and inherent structures while Splunk has a monitoring console that views log index and volume status to give you health checks of multiple deployments.
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3. Datadog
This is a log management and cloud monitoring solution that lets you collect log data centrally from any source. You can search, collect, and filter your logs to identify security events, which you can view through graphs or charts on your dashboard.
There are several major differences between Datadog and Splunk which can help you make the choice between the two. Splunk is a log management tool while Datadog is a monitoring and analytics tool that your IT and DevOps team can use to monitor your environment.
Datadog is also useful in integrating other products to measure performance better, while Splunk lacks this functionality.
Splunk also requires technical support to install it on the system while Datadog comes with easy-to-use features for implementing and installing it. When it comes to programming languages, Datadog supports PHP, JAVA, Ruby, Node, Python, .NET and Go while Splunk doesn’t have standards for using such languages.
Datadog can send alerts and alarms when an issue crops up in the system so you can act immediately but Splunk lacks these additional tools – the system admin handles the alerts.
Other differences include that Datadog monitors the performance of your environment while Splunk monitors your data and converts it into a readable format for analysis. Datadog’s customized dashboards make it functional for performance monitoring, while Splunk needs to be used as is.
Finally, Datadog supports multi-cloud visibility to monitor the performance and data of cloud services while Splunk analyzes log files generated from the systems.
4. Sumo Logic
Sumo Logic is a log management tool based on SaaS that you can use to monitor services in the cloud or on-premises. The platform has a wide range of integrations for Google Cloud, AWS, Kubernetes, Microsoft Azure, and Docker so it can fit with your current services and tools.
The software features log collection, charts and graphs in the dashboard, real-time alerts, threat intelligence, and integrations all of which help you get a comprehensive view of security events.
Sumo Logic is offered in the cloud as SaaS to its users, while Splunk is offered on-premises though it has a limited cloud product. Sumo Logic’s data models design should be finalized upfront and data extraction follows this pattern, while Splunk lets you store data in indices and you can do data modeling flexibly during run time.
Sumo Logic is a cost-effective solution for SMBs, while Splunk is expensive and best for large companies with a larger user base. Sumo Logic has fewer apps in its stable than Splunk, but Sumo Logic has an app integration facility in the cloud, which Splunk lacks.
You also get search functionalities, community participation, and machine learning data that helps you get insights into performance for problem resolution compared to Splunk, which uses AI techniques.
Sumo Logic also comes with extensive API interfaces for data access and configuration, while Splunk offers a limited API functionality. In Sumo Logic, only aggregated data is stored while Splunk stores raw data though it can quickly delete your storage.
Splunk focuses on more app monitoring and security or compliance aspects while Sumo Logic is focused on security and compliance of app and infrastructure functions.
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5. New Relic
New Relic is a web application tool that helps you check user performance and how they feel when using the software through servers with applicable codes. The software is also available as an all-in-one performance check tool, compared to Splunk, which employs operational intelligence to search, visualize, and analyze machine data.
New Relic offers simple deployment and installation with powerful integrations while Splunk has free trials and is best for insights. You can get push notifications with alert and error detection features.
Plus, New Relic integrates with Amazon Ec2, Azure, Jira, Slack, Ansible, and Heroku to provide high productivity, while Splunk integrates with Wazuh, Google Anthos, PagerDuty, and Amazon GuardDuty.
The downside with Splunk over New Relic is that it has a complex user interface customization process and lacks essential quick navigation options.
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6. ManageEngine EventLog Analyzer
ManageEngine EventLog Analyzer is another SIEM tool just like Splunk, which helps you monitor system logs. The software can collect logs from more than 700 sources with mixed agent-based and agentless log collection and log imports.
You can navigate through the logs it collects using customizable filters to find the most significant events of your security.
Among its key features include log collection and analysis, real-time event correlation, compliance reports, and alerts.
You can identify attack patterns through real-time event correlation and determine when alerts are raised through its 30 preconfigured SIEM correlation rules, which you can also customize to define other attack patterns.
Compliance reporting templates also help you prepare to audit frameworks like ISO 27001, GDPR, HIPAA, PCI DSS, SOX, and more. You can schedule reports to automatically run and export the reports in PDF, HTML, and CSV for sharing with others.
Unlike Splunk, ManageEngine EventLog Analyzer uses anomaly detection to help technicians in their daily operations and has multiple alert channels so your team is alerted via SMS, app integration, or email.
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7. Sematext Logs
Sematext Logs is another log management software that collects logs from your environment. The logs can be searched using basic query syntax that helps you identify particular events.
The software can create custom dashboards for performance monitoring in real-time. It provides charts and graphs, reports, real-time alerts, and log data collection.
To create custom dashboards, you’ll use the Reports pane and then start collecting specific monitoring metrics. The dashboards help you visualize performance and security issues, for which you can get notifications or alerts via email, PagerDuty, or Slack once certain threshold conditions are met.
Unlike Splunk, Sematext Logs has a freeware version for testing. Plus, it supports threshold-based alerts for maintaining SLAs, data outside of event logs, and uses Elasticsearch for flexible query options.
Sematext Logs is also affordable and gives you full control over your monitoring experience.
8. LogRhythm NextGen SIEM Platform
LogRhythm NextGen SIEM Platform is a tool that analyzes your logs and has three separate yet distinct tools: AnalytiX, DetectX, and RespondX. The software provides you with alarms, an AI engine, structured and unstructured search, custom dashboards, a centralized log storage, and integrated SOAR.
The AnalytiX tool stores log data in a centralized way so you can navigate with the searches. You can also view log data through custom dashboards that comes with visualization features for deeper visibility. The AI engine analyzes your logs to detect potential threats thanks to its more than 900 customizable correlation rule sets.
The DetectX tool detects security issues and triggers alarms through its security analytics. It recognizes threats through machine learning and highlights them to you.
RespondX, on the other hand, is an integrated SOAR solution that automatically performs remediation tasks once it detects a threat.
Compared to Splunk, LogRhythm NextGen SIEM Platform uses simple wizards for log collection and other security tasks so it’s more beginner-friendly than Splunk. Plus, it offers a sleek, highly customizable interface that’s visually appealing.
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9. Paessler PRTG Network Monitor
Paessler PRTG Network Monitor is a free tool that helps you monitor your network and offers log monitoring. The software allows you to use sensors for log data collection, which display performance data as numerical dials or values so you can efficiently monitor live and historical performance data.
Unlike Splunk, Paessler PRTG Network Monitor has out-of-the-box sensors, Syslog Receiver sensor, and Windows Event log sensor, log monitoring, automated responses, and alerts.
All these sensors are used for log management so you can monitor Windows log files, system and app logs. You also get to monitor the syslog messages you get per second, warning messages, and error messages among others.
Paessler PRTG Network Monitor provides threshold-based alerts that you can configure and get notifications when a key parameter is exceeded. Notifications are sent out via SMS, email, and push notifications.
10. LogDNA
LogDNA is also free compared to Splunk, which is a paid tool. You can manage logs, collect and monitor log data, and use exclusion rules to reduce the log data volume you’re monitoring so you can identify the important security instances.
The software provides visualizations via graphs or charts so you can monitor log data trends quickly. Plus, you get alerts, usage reporting, and team controls. The alerts notify you immediately if any system events crop up, and deliver them via Slack, PagerDuty, or Webhook and other APIs.
Usage reporting delivers updates on log usage so you can tell when to manage resource consumption while team controls help you support your team through role-based access control and user authentication.
11. Fluentd
Fluentd is an open source tool unlike Splunk, which has no open source or free option. The cross-platform tool is designed to collect and analyze your data and is best for individuals or SMBs looking for free log management software.
It’s one of the most customizable Splunk alternatives on this list and comes with hundreds of plugins, over 500 of which come from itself.
The tool works best in logging distributed systems and has a 10-minute setup process, flourishing community, and can decouple data sources via a unified logging layer in your backend system.
12. jKool
jKool is a cloud-based log management and data analysis software that uses machine-generated data compared to Splunk’s AI-powered system. The log metrics and transactions can be analyzed easily through this tool and it handles lots of big data in real-time.
It also gives you graphs, charts, and other visualization options to represent trends in your data, and can analyze and consolidate machine data. It comes as an on-premises and service deployment, compared to Splunk that’s on-premises only.
jKool also breaks your data into silos and runs individual queries on them to give you meaningful insights. You can geotag all events and run queries on the tags too, then find malicious activity so as to minimize any risks from it.
13. Mixpanel
Mixpanel is a specialized tool that offers an in-depth look at how people use your app so you can boost conversions. The tool helps you target communications and measures user engagement and retention.
It’s one of the quickest tools compared to Splunk, which is often regarded as slow by developers, and you can get insights in just minutes. Its visualizations are also great and you can bookmark the reports it generates for easier access later on.
Mixpanel detects data trends automatically for rapid insight discovery and helps undertake intelligent action based on the analytical data it receives. The specialized software is made with app optimization in mind and comes with a free version, which Splunk lacks.
14. LogZilla
LogZilla is a specialized network event-orchestrated platform that offers network insight in real-time for enterprise network teams. It helps your IT team detect issues and malicious activities before they threaten your environment.
It can store up to 40TB daily and record 855,000 events per second. You also get automation features for efficient log management.
It’s easier to use than Splunk even if you don’t have knowledge of network management. Plus, it runs in Docker containers so you don’t need an operating system like Splunk needs Windows to run LogZilla. And you don’t have to spend time on nonexistent issues thanks to its excellent false-positive detection feature.
A free version is available for up to 500 events per day and it offers plans for SMBs, compared to Splunk, which is mostly geared towards large companies and enterprises.
15. Logstash
Logstash is also open source compared to Splunk, which has no open source or free version. The tool helps you ingest data and analyze it from multiple sources then sends it to the stash you want.
Logstash supports AWS services, apps, websites, and many other input sources. It’s flexible and has robust security policies, over 200 plugins from itself, and more from its community.
The software can filter events and provides a geocoordinate deciphering feature. Plus, it integrates easily with other data sources and has various filters to help you tailor the software to your exact needs.
Wrapping Up
Splunk is a great log management software, but it’s not the best for all users. It’s pricey, has slower search speeds, and is not as versatile enough to handle large swaths of data.
These 15 best Splunk alternatives offer free or cheaper tools for the same purpose so you can try any one of them to find the one best suited for your individual or business needs.
