Log Management · head to head
ELK Stack vs Dynatrace
Dynatrace
Log Management
Application Performance Management and Observability
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Each has a real cost: 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; Dynatrace pricing is commitment based: rates require an annual platform level commitment rather than month to month purchase
- They diverge on capability: ELK Stack covers Full-text search, Dynatrace covers AI-powered analytics.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which ELK Stack and Dynatrace actually diverge.
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 ELK Stack
- Full-text search
- Data visualization
- Log aggregation
- Time-series analytics
Only in Dynatrace
- AI-powered analytics
- APM
- Infrastructure monitoring
- Log analysis
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.
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
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
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
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
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
Pricing, plan by plan
ELK Stack
Free- FreeFree
- Full-text search
- Data visualization
- Log aggregation
Dynatrace
Free- FreeFree
- AI-powered analytics
- APM
- Infrastructure monitoring
Which should you pick?
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.
Choose Dynatrace if
- You need ai-powered analytics.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Web, Api.
- You also want apm.
Questions people ask
- Is ELK Stack or Dynatrace better?
- Neither clearly leads. ELK Stack starts at Free and Dynatrace at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, ELK Stack or Dynatrace?
- ELK Stack starts at Free and Dynatrace at Free.
- Does ELK Stack or Dynatrace run on more platforms?
- Both run on Web, Api, so platform support will not decide this one for you.
- Can I use ELK Stack for free?
- Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
- What is ELK Stack best used for?
- ELK Stack is most often used for centralised log search and analytics over elasticsearch, dashboards and visualisation of machine data in kibana, self managing a search and observability cluster on your own hardware. Of those, centralised log search and analytics over elasticsearch and dashboards and visualisation of machine data in kibana are not what Dynatrace is typically brought in for.
- What can ELK Stack do that Dynatrace cannot?
- ELK Stack covers Full-text search, Data visualization, Log aggregation, Time-series analytics. Dynatrace covers AI-powered analytics, APM, Infrastructure monitoring, Log analysis. Both handle API, Webhooks, REST, Web support.