Log Management · head to head
ELK Stack vs Fluent Bit
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; Fluent Bit fluent Bit ships over 100 built in plugins against more than 1,000 external plugins available for Fluentd, so fewer integrations exist out of the box
- They diverge on capability: ELK Stack covers Full-text search, Fluent Bit covers Log collection.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which ELK Stack and Fluent Bit actually diverge.
| Attribute | ELK Stack | Fluent Bit |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2011 | 2015 |
Identical on both: starting price (Free), pricing model (open-source), 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 Fluent Bit
- Log collection
- Lightweight processing
- Data parsing
- Event filtering
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 Fluent Bit
- Dashboards and visualisation of machine data in Kibananot Fluent Bit
- Self managing a search and observability cluster on your own hardwarenot Fluent Bit
Fluent Bit
- Lightweight log and metric forwarding from containers and edge devicesnot ELK Stack
- Kubernetes node level log collection with a small memory footprintnot ELK Stack
- Filtering and enriching telemetry before shipping it to a backendnot 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
Fluent Bit
- Fluent Bit ships over 100 built in plugins against more than 1,000 external plugins available for Fluentd, so fewer integrations exist out of the box
- It is written in C, so extending it beyond the built in plugins means writing C rather than Ruby
- Dependencies are zero only until a plugin requires one
Pricing, plan by plan
ELK Stack
Free- FreeFree
- Full-text search
- Data visualization
- Log aggregation
Fluent Bit
Free- FreeFree
- Log collection
- Lightweight processing
- Data parsing
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 Fluent Bit if
- You need log collection.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Web, Api.
- You also want lightweight processing.
Questions people ask
- Is ELK Stack or Fluent Bit better?
- Neither clearly leads. ELK Stack starts at Free and Fluent Bit at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, ELK Stack or Fluent Bit?
- ELK Stack starts at Free and Fluent Bit at Free.
- Does ELK Stack or Fluent Bit 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 Fluent Bit is typically brought in for.
- What can ELK Stack do that Fluent Bit cannot?
- ELK Stack covers Full-text search, Data visualization, Log aggregation, Time-series analytics. Fluent Bit covers Log collection, Lightweight processing, Data parsing, Event filtering. Both handle API, Webhooks, REST, Web support.