Log Management · head to head
ELK Stack vs Splunk
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; Splunk no prices are published on any plan; every model requires contacting sales for an estimate
- They diverge on capability: ELK Stack covers Time-series analytics, Splunk covers Real-time monitoring.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which ELK Stack and Splunk actually diverge.
Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), platforms (Web, Api), user rating (Not yet rated).
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
- Time-series analytics
Only in Splunk
- Real-time monitoring
- Custom dashboards
- Alert management
- Anomaly detection
- Log parsing
Both cover
- Full-text search
- Data visualization
- Log aggregation
- 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 Splunk
- Dashboards and visualisation of machine data in Kibananot Splunk
- Self managing a search and observability cluster on your own hardwarenot Splunk
Splunk
- Log search and analysis across infrastructurenot ELK Stack
- SIEM, SOAR and UEBA for a security operations teamnot ELK Stack
- Application performance and infrastructure monitoringnot ELK Stack
- Cloud, private cloud or on-premises deploymentnot 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
Splunk
- No prices are published on any plan; every model requires contacting sales for an estimate
- Three separate pricing models, workload, ingest and entity, so the same deployment costs different amounts depending on which was signed
- Ingest pricing bills on data volume, so cost tracks how much you log rather than how much value you get from it
- Security, observability and platform are priced separately
Pricing, plan by plan
ELK Stack
Free- FreeFree
- Full-text search
- Data visualization
- Log aggregation
Splunk
Free- FreeFree
- Log aggregation
- Real-time monitoring
- Data visualization
Which should you pick?
Choose ELK Stack if
- You need time-series analytics.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Web, Api.
Choose Splunk if
- You need real-time monitoring.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Web, Api.
- You also want custom dashboards.
Questions people ask
- Is ELK Stack or Splunk better?
- Neither clearly leads. ELK Stack starts at Free and Splunk at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, ELK Stack or Splunk?
- ELK Stack starts at Free and Splunk at Free.
- Does ELK Stack or Splunk 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 Splunk is typically brought in for.
- What can ELK Stack do that Splunk cannot?
- ELK Stack covers Time-series analytics. Splunk covers Real-time monitoring, Custom dashboards, Alert management, Anomaly detection. Both handle Full-text search, Data visualization, Log aggregation, API.
Related pages
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- ELK Stack vs Palo Alto Networks
- ELK Stack vs Tailscale
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- Splunk vs Elastic Stack
- Splunk vs New Relic
- Splunk vs Datadog Logs
- Splunk vs Coralogix
- Splunk vs Grafana Loki
- Splunk vs CloudWatch
- Splunk vs Dynatrace
- Splunk vs InfluxDB
- Splunk vs Airbrake
- Splunk vs AppDynamics
- Splunk vs Axiom
- Splunk vs Azure Monitor
- Splunk vs Better Stack
- Splunk vs Bugsnag
- Splunk vs Dynatrace Logs
- Splunk vs Elastic
- Splunk vs Elastic APM
- Splunk vs Elasticsearch Service
- Splunk vs Prometheus
- Splunk vs Cloudflare
- Splunk vs Consul
- Splunk vs Grafana
- Splunk vs Ivanti
- Splunk vs Palo Alto Networks
- Splunk vs Tailscale
- Splunk vs Traefik
- Splunk vs Ubiquiti UniFi