Log Management · head to head
ELK Stack vs Stackdriver
Stackdriver
Log Management
Google Cloud Operations - Monitoring and Logging
- 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; Stackdriver stackdriver is now branded Google Cloud Observability and cloud.google.com/stackdriver redirects to the Observability product page
- They diverge on capability: ELK Stack covers Full-text search, Stackdriver covers Log management.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which ELK Stack and Stackdriver actually diverge.
| Attribute | ELK Stack | Stackdriver |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | open-source | usage-based |
| Founded | 2011 | 2006 |
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 Stackdriver
- Log management
- Metrics collection
- Real-time monitoring
- Error reporting
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 Stackdriver
- Dashboards and visualisation of machine data in Kibananot Stackdriver
- Self managing a search and observability cluster on your own hardwarenot Stackdriver
Stackdriver
- Centralised logging, metrics and traces for workloads running on Google Cloudnot ELK Stack
- Alerting and uptime checks on cloud servicesnot ELK Stack
- Running managed Prometheus-compatible monitoring at scalenot 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
Stackdriver
- Stackdriver is now branded Google Cloud Observability and cloud.google.com/stackdriver redirects to the Observability product page
- Cloud Logging charges $0.50 per GiB ingested, with only the first 50 GiB per project per month free
- Logs kept beyond 30 days cost an extra $0.01 per GiB per month on top of the ingestion charge
- Monitoring metric ingestion starts at $0.2580 per MiB, with only the first 150 MiB per billing account free
- Alerting policies are billed at $0.35 per month for each metric reference in the policy
- Uptime checks cost $0.30 per 1,000 executions and synthetic monitors $1.20 per 1,000 executions, with only 100 synthetic executions per billing account free
- Monitoring read API calls cost $0.50 per million time series returned beyond the first million per billing account
- Log volume is measured before indexing on the actual size of log entries, so verbose logging directly drives cost
Pricing, plan by plan
ELK Stack
Free- FreeFree
- Full-text search
- Data visualization
- Log aggregation
Stackdriver
Free- FreeFree
- Log management
- Metrics collection
- Real-time 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 Stackdriver if
- You need log management.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Web, Api.
- You also want metrics collection.
Questions people ask
- Is ELK Stack or Stackdriver better?
- Neither clearly leads. ELK Stack starts at Free and Stackdriver at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, ELK Stack or Stackdriver?
- ELK Stack starts at Free and Stackdriver at Free.
- Does ELK Stack or Stackdriver 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 Stackdriver is typically brought in for.
- What can ELK Stack do that Stackdriver cannot?
- ELK Stack covers Full-text search, Data visualization, Log aggregation, Time-series analytics. Stackdriver covers Log management, Metrics collection, Real-time monitoring, Error reporting. Both handle API, Webhooks, REST, Web support.