Softwr

Log Management · head to head

Dynatrace vs ELK Stack

Dynatrace logo

Dynatrace

Log Management

Application Performance Management and Observability

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
ELK Stack logo

ELK Stack

Log Management

Open Source Search and Log Analytics

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Dynatrace pricing is commitment based: rates require an annual platform level commitment rather than month to month purchase; ELK Stack the free Basic self managed subscription excludes machine learning, alerting, single sign on via SAML or OpenID Connect, LDAP and Active Directory authentication, field and document level security, searchable snapshots and cross cluster replication
  • They diverge on capability: Dynatrace covers AI-powered analytics, ELK Stack covers Full-text search.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Dynatrace and ELK Stack actually diverge.

Attributes where Dynatrace and ELK Stack differ
AttributeDynatraceELK Stack
Pricing modelsubscriptionopen-source
Founded20052011

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), platforms (Web, Api), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Log Management).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Dynatrace

  • AI-powered analytics
  • APM
  • Infrastructure monitoring
  • Log analysis

Only in ELK Stack

  • Full-text search
  • Data visualization
  • Log aggregation
  • Time-series analytics

Both cover

  • API
  • Webhooks
  • REST
  • Web support
  • Api support

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Dynatrace

  • Full stack application performance monitoring with automatic dependency discoverynot ELK Stack
  • Kubernetes and container platform observability priced per podnot ELK Stack
  • Log ingest, processing and query analyticsnot ELK Stack
  • Real user monitoring and session replay for web applicationsnot ELK Stack

ELK Stack

  • Centralised log search and analytics over Elasticsearchnot Dynatrace
  • Dashboards and visualisation of machine data in Kibananot Dynatrace
  • Self managing a search and observability cluster on your own hardwarenot Dynatrace

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Dynatrace

  • Pricing is commitment based: rates require an annual platform level commitment rather than month to month purchase
  • Full-Stack Monitoring is priced at $58 per month per 8 GiB of host memory, so a 64 GiB host counts as eight units
  • Infrastructure Monitoring at $29 per host per month excludes code level tracing, which requires Full-Stack
  • Session Replay doubles Real User Monitoring cost from $2.25 to $4.50 per 1,000 sessions
  • Runtime Vulnerability Analytics and Runtime Application Protection are each charged separately at $13 per month per 8 GiB host on top of monitoring

ELK Stack

  • The free Basic self managed subscription excludes machine learning, alerting, single sign on via SAML or OpenID Connect, LDAP and Active Directory authentication, field and document level security, searchable snapshots and cross cluster replication
  • Cross cluster operations require the same subscription tier on every cluster involved
  • The 99.95 percent monthly uptime SLA applies only to the Platinum and Enterprise subscription tiers
  • Three deployment models are priced on three different bases: resource based for Cloud Hosted, usage based for Serverless and licence based on nodes and RAM for self managed
  • Elastic Cloud Serverless does not yet support traffic filtering, cross project search or bring your own key
  • The pricing page publishes no rate for any tier

Pricing, plan by plan

Dynatrace

Free
  • FreeFree
    • AI-powered analytics
    • APM
    • Infrastructure monitoring

ELK Stack

Free
  • FreeFree
    • Full-text search
    • Data visualization
    • Log aggregation

Which should you pick?

Choose Dynatrace if

  • You need ai-powered analytics.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, Api.
  • You also want apm.
Dynatrace review

Choose ELK Stack if

  • You need full-text search.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, Api.
  • You also want data visualization.
ELK Stack review

Questions people ask

Is Dynatrace or ELK Stack better?
Neither clearly leads. Dynatrace starts at Free and ELK Stack at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Dynatrace or ELK Stack?
Dynatrace starts at Free and ELK Stack at Free.
Does Dynatrace or ELK Stack run on more platforms?
Both run on Web, Api, so platform support will not decide this one for you.
Can I use Dynatrace for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Dynatrace best used for?
Dynatrace is most often used for full stack application performance monitoring with automatic dependency discovery, kubernetes and container platform observability priced per pod, log ingest, processing and query analytics, real user monitoring and session replay for web applications. Of those, full stack application performance monitoring with automatic dependency discovery and kubernetes and container platform observability priced per pod are not what ELK Stack is typically brought in for.
What can Dynatrace do that ELK Stack cannot?
Dynatrace covers AI-powered analytics, APM, Infrastructure monitoring, Log analysis. ELK Stack covers Full-text search, Data visualization, Log aggregation, Time-series analytics. Both handle API, Webhooks, REST, Web support.
ShareXLinkedInRedditWhatsAppEmail

Related pages

More on Dynatrace

More on ELK Stack

Keep looking

Other head to heads