ELK Stackvs
Elastic Stack
Elastic Stack: Search, Observability, and Security Solutions
ELK Stack
Open Source Search and Log Analytics
As of 30 August 2026, ELK Stack is free to use. ELK Stack is a collection of three open-source products - Elasticsearch, Logstash, and Kibana. Softwr lists it under Logging. ELK Stack is made by Elastic, launched in 2011, available on Web, API.
Overview
What ELK Stack does
ELK Stack is a collection of three open-source products - Elasticsearch, Logstash, and Kibana.
What people use it 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
The honest half
Where it falls short
Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about 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
Cross-shopped
What people choose instead of ELK Stack
Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.
- ELK StackvsDatadog Logs
Datadog Logs: Log Management and Analytics
- ELK StackvsNew Relic
New Relic: Observability made simple
- ELK StackvsCoralogix
Coralogix: Continuous Log Insights and Visibility
Pricing
What ELK Stack costs
Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.
Free
Free
- Full-text search
- Data visualization
- Log aggregation
Capabilities
Features
Full-text search
Data visualization
Log aggregation
Time-series analytics
API
Integration with API
Webhooks
Integration with Webhooks
REST
Integration with REST
Web support
Available on web
Api support
Available on api
Answered, with sources
Questions people ask
Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
Does Elastic offer a free trial without requiring a credit card?
Yes, Elastic offers a 14-day free cloud trial with no credit card required that includes all solutions: Search, Observability, Security, and Agent Builder.
SourceCan I deploy Elastic locally for evaluation?
Yes, Elastic provides a local deployment option for Elasticsearch and Kibana with a one-command setup requiring no account or credit card. This allows self-managed evaluation.
SourceDoes Elastic provide expert consultation for complex deployments?
Yes, Elastic offers expert consultation through their sales team for complex requirements and custom deployment scenarios.
SourceBehind it
Who makes ELK Stack
- Company
- Elastic
- Based in
- United States
Keep looking
Where to go from ELK Stack
- ELK Stack alternativesEvery product people weigh against it
- ELK Stack pricingPlans, floors and what the tiers exclude
- ELK Stack badgesWhich rules it meets, and the figure behind each
- All Logging softwareThe full category
- Best Logging softwareThe shortlist, and how it was cut
Best Logging software for
Compare ELK Stack with
- Datadog Logs
- New Relic
- Coralogix
- Elastic
- Fluentd
- Splunk Enterprise
- InfluxDB
- Graylog
- Humio
- Logz.io
- Traceloop
- Loggly
- Loki
- Mezmo
- New Relic Logs
- Telegraf
- Humio
- Logz.io
Other Logging software
Continuous Log Insights and Visibility
Free, then $0.42/GB (logs ingestion)10 researched notesPurpose-built time series database for metrics and events
Free, then $0.0025/MB ingested12 researched notesLLM reliability platform with open-source observability and evaluation
Free plan10 researched notesThe Plugin-Driven Server Agent for Collecting and Reporting Metrics
Free plan10 researched notes
Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for ELK Stack, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.
More on ELK Stack
ELK Stack alternatives
What people switch to, and what they give up
ELK Stack pricing
Every tier, and where the cost actually lands
Compare ELK Stack
Put it head to head with anything we hold
ELK Stack badge
Its rating, and an embed for your own site
Best Logging software alternatives
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Freemium with pay-as-you-go enterprise option
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