Graylog vs Splunk

Updated August 19, 2023

Difference Between Graylog and Splunk

The Graylog software is a type of log management tool that helps find security threats and find issues in the data (unstructured data and structured data) floats in the network. The Splunk tool is another type of log management tool used to analyse a huge chunk of data generated from machines. In the networking world, network devices are used for communication and send data packets over the network. So for monitoring the networking devices, some monitoring software is required that examines the data and can find the security threats in the network.

Head to Head Comparison between Graylog and Splunk (Infographics)

Below are the top 7 comparisons between Graylog vs Splunk:

Key differences between Graylog and Splunk

Let us discuss some key differences between Graylog vs Splunk in the following points:

Graylog Tool

• The Graylog tool provides a powerful platform that helps manage the data that flows in the network and provides several applications for debugging security threats.
• The data managed by the Graylog tool can be both structured type of data or unstructured type of data.
• The Graylog tool uses other platforms like MongoDB, ElasticSearch, and also Scala.
• In the Graylog tool, there is one central server that controls all the clients installed on numerous servers. There is also one web interface installed in the tool, which helps to visualize data and monitored the logs maintained by the central server.
• The primary purpose of using the Graylog software is to stash logs that are generated from web applications. The log files generated from web applications can be in any form, both structured data and unstructured data.
• The logs generated in the form of a raw string the Graylog tool converts the raw string into structured data to be read and analyzed.
• The Graylog tool provides the additional functionality of supporting the structured queries so that the custom search can be done and log files can be easily parsed.
• The Graylog tool can be easily integrated with different web applications, which helps the developers and system engineers see system behaviour and analyze the code line by line.
• The Graylog tool is majorly used because it generates a single log instance for one complete system. As there is one single instance of the log, the system behaviour can be analyzed in a better way. The log instance can be generated in multiple instances also, but it can create a problem for engineers because the log instance will be generated in different places, which will create problems to analyze the whole system from the central server.

Splunk Tool

• Splunk tool is majorly used when there is a requirement of managing huge chunks of data.
• The tool helps transform the raw data into meaningful forms to understand the data and analyse the system behaviour.
• The Splunk tool is a type of data analyzing platform which analyzes the data generated from different machines. The Splunk tool has the capability to show the data generated by the machine in a human-readable form.
• The Splunk tool uses the three phases to present the data in a human-readable form. The first phase includes the identification of data along-with the solution approach for the data analysis. The second phase includes the transformation of a chunk of data into some meaningful result. The final phase is to convert the generated result into reports, graphs or charts as per the requirements.
• Today’s installed machines generate the data continuously, which arises the requirement to manage the data and showcase the data in some meaningful form.
• By using the Splunk tool, the data generated from machines can be easily accessible, seen and can be used to make decisions.
• The data analyzed by the tool is not easy to understand as the data can be present in any form like raw strings or unstructured format. Most of the time, the machine’s data is present in a tangible form that is hard to understand. At that time, the Splunk tool comes out in the picture.
• The Splunk tool help to browse the log files generated by the machine. The tool uses the SPL (search processing language), which helps to search any simple terms in the log file.
• The other benefit of the Splunk tool is the data can be inserted in any format in the tool, which means different data formats file, i.e. .csv, .json, or .xml data file, can be given in the Splunk tool for analyzing.
• Along with all these features, there is one robust feature of the Splunk tool, which makes this tool different from other log management tools: scalability and installation of the tool.

Comparison Table of Graylog vs Splunk

The table below summarizes the comparisons between Graylog vs Splunk:

Graylog	Splunk
Graylog tool does not support multiple operating system platforms to install it on the machine.	Splunk tool supports multiple operating system platforms like Windows, Linux, iOS and various android devices.
As there is one central server for managing the system, the central server’s functionality can be increased by installing plugins on a machine.	There is no such functionality in the Splunk tool. Hence there is limited functionality offered by the Splunk tool.
Graylog tool does not support multiple data format files as input files.	Splunk tool supports multiple data formats like .csv file, .xml file or .json file.
Graylog tool is less expensive if it is compared to the Splunk tool.	Splunk tool is pretty much expensive compared to other log management tools.
The maintenance of the Graylog tool id easy compare to the Splunk tool.	The maintenance of the Splunk tool is expensive and hard to maintain.
There is no such functionality in the Graylog log management tool.	Splunk tool provides the functionality of visualizing the generated data in real-time.
The data is not presented in a human-readable form, which restricts the Graylog tool’s use compared to the Splunk tool.	The data generated after getting analyzed by the Splunk tool is in a human-readable form.

Conclusion

All the log management tools like Graylog and Splunk help the enterprise maintain their machines and servers and manage the logs effectively generated from the machine. Both the tools have the functionality of scaling, which helps to manage the log files properly.

Recommended Articles

This is a guide to the top differences between Graylog vs Splunk. Here we also discuss the functionalities of both the tools with key differences and a comparison table. You may also have a look at the following articles to learn more –

1. Splunk Interview Questions
2. Datadog vs Splunk
3. Kibana vs Splunk
4. Graylog vs ELK