Graylog vs ELK

To organize the workflow and coordinate teams, management tools are used. With the help of management tools, one can complete any tasks faster, track projects, manage your team, and plan for future tasks. An engineer goes and checks out the log files and with the right application to handle the tasks, it becomes easy to seek out the problem in the device. ELK stack is used for big data analysis whereas Graylog is mostly used for log analysis. They are two prominent log management solutions. Both Graylog and ELK have their own pros and cons. Also, everyone has different requirements, which should help the user to make a decision. Let’s find out in what aspects they differ.

What is Graylog?

Graylog is written in Java and works with Graylog extended log format(GLEF) and its search language is Lucene syntax. It is a powerful log management solution that depends on MongoDB and Elasticsearch. It is made up of  MongoDB, Graylog’s main server, and Graylog’s web interface. It exchanges different config files and Content Packs with other Graylog users as it has an entire community-driven marketplace.

Key Features

1. It is a log collector and consolidator.
2. It creates and manages log files and has a good activity tracker.
3. It also acts as a data viewer and is best for threat and data examination.

Advantages

1. It has a User-friendly interface.
2. A variety of data formats can be handled.
3. It is quite flexible regarding the authentication process and user permissions.
4. It can send you email alerts.
5. It uses simple widgets to create custom reports, dashboards, and monitors.

Disadvantages

1. It cannot read Syslog files.
2. The dashboard is not user-friendly in terms of management.
3. It is not a suitable option for large enterprises.

What is ELK?

ELK is made up of three different services. It is an acronym for Elasticsearch(E), Logstash(L), and Kibana(K). All three acronyms are open-source and created by the same team. It serves as a wrapper for Apache Lucene and is written in the JAVA language. It is easy to use, scalable, and quite flexible.

Key Features

1. It aggregates logs from all your systems. 
2. It analyzes the logs. 
3. It creates visualizations for applications.
4. There is a feature of fast monitoring and troubleshooting.

Advantages

1. A wide range of plugins is available.
2. It allows doing everything one needs with only one tool.
3. It is free to get started and has grown in popularity because of its low financial barrier to entry. 
4. The organizations have multiple hosting options to choose from when it comes to deploying an ELK stack.
5. It offers centralized logging capabilities.
6. Users of ELK Stack can create data visualizations and build custom dashboards using real-time data from Elasticsearch. 

Disadvantages

1. The learning curve is steep.
2. Though it is free to use but building and maintaining this tool requires infrastructure and resources. 
3. It has complex management requirements such as configuring log parsing and ingestion, building a data pipeline, monitoring and handling exceptions to avoid data loss, and many more.
4. Users have to pay for the feature of authentication and alert.

Difference between Graylog and ELK:

	Graylog	ELK
Support	It is written in java and supports GLEF(Graylog extended log format).	It is written in java and supports JSON format.
Syslog Files	It does not accept Syslog files and data is sent directly.	It supports the majority of data types like JSON etc.
Builtin	Built-in alerting is available and alerts are based on stream data.	Built-in alerting is not available and third-party plugins are used to send alerts.
Developed for	It is only developed for log management and log analysis.	It is a multipurpose stack.
Support	Real-time UDP logging / GLEF logging is supported by Graylog.	It supports full-text query search analysis.
Focus	It mainly focuses on log analysis.	It mainly focuses on big data analysis.
Visualization	It is the whole package of visualization.	Visualization is done by Kibana in this tool.
GUI	It has an interactive and user-friendly GUI.	It has a less interactive and user-friendly GUI as compared to Graylog.
Organizations	Netflix, Cisco, Verizon, and Linkedin are some organizations that use Graylog.	Appbrain, Hotjar, and stock media are some organizations that use the ELK stack.

Conclusion

Both are two prominent log management solutions. Graylog is a powerful tool, and its GUI is very user-friendly, whereas the ELK stack is quite flexible. Both tools have their own advantages and disadvantages. It is up to the users to decide which suits them better according to their system and requirements. Also, there are hybrid applications that combine the two and can be worked simultaneously on a system.