Fluentdvs
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Fluentd
Open Source Data Collector for Unified Logging
As of 30 August 2026, Fluentd is free to use. Fluentd is an open-source data collector that allows you to unify data collection and consumption. Softwr lists it under Logging. Fluentd is made by Cloud Native Computing Foundation, launched in 2011, available on Web, API.
Overview
What Fluentd does
Fluentd is an open-source data collector that allows you to unify data collection and consumption.
What people use it for
- Unified log collection and routing from many sources to many destinations
- Parsing and transforming log records before forwarding
- Aggregating logs from containers into Elasticsearch, S3 or a SIEM
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 Fluentd.
- Fluentd needs more than 60 MB of memory at runtime, against roughly 450 KB for Fluent Bit
- Fluentd is built as a Ruby gem and depends on other gems, so a Ruby runtime is required
- Its capability comes from over 1,000 external plugins rather than built in functionality, so each added input or output is a separate dependency
- The Fluent Bit documentation states that cloud providers have switched from Fluentd to Fluent Bit for performance and compatibility and calls Fluent Bit the next generation solution
Cross-shopped
What people choose instead of Fluentd
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.
- FluentdvsDatadog Logs
Datadog Logs: Log Management and Analytics
- FluentdvsNew Relic
New Relic: Observability made simple
- FluentdvsCoralogix
Coralogix: Continuous Log Insights and Visibility
Pricing
What Fluentd costs
Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.
Free
Free
- Log collection
- Data parsing
- Filtering and buffering
Capabilities
Features
Log collection
Data parsing
Filtering and buffering
Event routing
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.
How much does Fluentd cost?
Fluentd is free and open-source under the Apache 2 License from the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF). There are no subscription fees, licensing costs, or commercial pricing tiers.
SourceBehind it
Who makes Fluentd
- Company
- Cloud Native Computing Foundation
- Based in
- United States
Keep looking
Where to go from Fluentd
- Fluentd alternativesEvery product people weigh against it
- Fluentd pricingPlans, floors and what the tiers exclude
- Fluentd 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 Fluentd with
- New Relic
- Datadog Logs
- Elastic Stack
- Coralogix
- InfluxDB
- Graylog
- Traceloop
- Splunk Enterprise
- Honeybadger
- Humio
- ELK Stack
- Telegraf
- Graylog
- Kibana
- Logstash
- Elasticsearch Service
- ELK Stack
- Filebeat
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 Fluentd, 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 Fluentd
Fluentd alternatives
What people switch to, and what they give up
Fluentd pricing
Every tier, and where the cost actually lands
Compare Fluentd
Put it head to head with anything we hold
Fluentd badge
Its rating, and an embed for your own site
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