Splunk is one of the most widely-used log management solutions on the market, but it’s not right for everyone. For companies that need to monitor a large volume of data, there are many other Splunk alternatives that are a better fit. In this article, we’re going to look at the top Splunk alternatives on the market.

The list includes tools for Windows, macOS, and Linux. We’ve focused on tools that can collect and centralize log data from a wide variety of sources with high-quality real-time monitoring capabilities like graphs and alerts.

Here is our list of the ten Best Splunk alternatives:

  • SolarWinds Security Event Manager EDITOR’S CHOICE One of the top Splunk alternatives. SIEM software with log collection, automated threat detection, alarms, compliance reports, and more. Start a 30-day free trial.
  • Loggly (FREE TRIAL) Free SaaS-based log monitoring software with custom dashboards, graphs and charts, alerts, reports, and more.
  • Datadog Log Management (FREE TRIAL) Cloud monitoring and log management software with centralized log collection, filtering, log-processing pipelines, alerts, and more.
  • ManageEngine Log360 (FREE TRIAL) An on-premises SIEM package that includes a threat intelligence feed to speed up threat detection, based on logs collected by the package’s agents. Runs on Windows Server.
  • ManageEngine EventLog Analyzer (FREE TRIAL) SIEM software that can collect logs from 700+ sources with real-time event correlation, alerts, compliance reports, and more.
  • Paessler PRTG Network Monitor (FREE TRIAL) Network and log monitoring software with out-of-the-box sensors, a Windows Event log Sensor, Syslog Receiver Sensor, alerts, notifications, and more.
  • Sumo Logic SaaS-based log management software with dashboards, integrations, predictive analytics, threat intelligence, alerts, and more.
  • Sematext Logs Log management software with real-time log monitoring, custom dashboards, reports, alerts, and more.
  • LogRhythm NextGen SIEM Platform Log analysis software with custom dashboards, visualizations, an AI engine, security analytics, an integrated SOAR, and more.
  • LogDNA Free log management tool with exclusion rules, graphs, charts, alerts, integrations, usage reporting, team controls, and more.

Top 10 Best Splunk Alternatives

1. SolarWinds Security Event Manager (FREE TRIAL)

Our methodology for selecting an alternative to Splunk 

We reviewed the market for log managers and analyzed tools based on the following criteria:

  • The ability to consolidate log messages of different formats into a common layout
  • A log manager that can rotate log files
  • A management system that creates a meaningful directory structure for logfile storage
  • A facility to analyze log messages through sorting and filtering
  • An option to archive and recall logfiles
  • A free trial or a demo account for a risk-free assessment period
  • Value for money, provided by a comprehensive tool that is offered at a reasonable price

With these selection criteria in mind, we have investigated a selection of log management tools that are suitable for businesses of all sizes.

SolarWinds Security Event Manager is a SIEM tool with centralized log collection. The platform collects logs and uses threat intelligence to automatically detects threats and respond. Threat intelligence alerts you when a security event takes place. Route notifications straight to your email so you can follow up.

Key Features:

  • Centralized log collection
  • Automated threat detection and response
  • Notifications
  • Dashboard
  • Graphs and charts
  • Compliance reports

A dashboard view provides a holistic perspective of events throughout your environment. There is a range of visualization options such as graphs and pie charts that allow you to identify performance trends at a glance. For example, you can view Login Failures by Source Machine pie chart to help identify compromised machines.

Compliance reports enable you to audit your environment easily. There are out-of-the-box compliance reports available for regulations such as HIPAA, PCI DSS, SOX, FISMA, GLBA, GPG13, and more. Reports can be customized or generated with built-in templates.

SolarWinds Security Event Manager is a SIEM solution that’s ideal for enterprises in need of low maintenance, threat intelligence-driven solution. Prices start at $2,525 (£1,971). Available on Windows, macOS, and Linux. You can download the 30-day free trial here.

Pros:

  • Enterprise focused SIEM with a wide range of integrations
  • Simple log filtering, no need to learn a custom query language
  • Dozens of templates allow administrators to start using SEM with little setup or customization
  • Historical analysis tool helps find anomalous behavior and outliers on the network

Cons:

  • SEM Is an advanced SIEM product built for professionals, requires time to fully learn the platform

SolarWinds Security Event Manager Download 30-day FREE Trial

EDITOR’S CHOICE

SolarWinds Security Event Manager is our top pick for a Splunk alternative because it is able to act as a log server, consolidator, and manager, offering a facility to view and sort messages for analysis. This tool will show log messages as they arrive and can also implement security scanning, forming a SIEM service. So, with the Security Event Manager, you get a security monitor as well as a log manager and these utilities more than replace the functions that you would get from Splunk.

Download: Start a 30-day Free Trial

Official Site: solarwinds.com/security-event-manager/registration

OS: Windows Server

2. Loggly (FREE TRIAL)

Loggly is a free SaaS-based log monitoring tool that is capable of processing large volumes of log data taken from any source. With Loggly you can view log events in real-time from multiple sources ranging from cloud platforms to databases, mobile apps, operating systems, and more. Through the dashboard, you can see an overview of performance for systems throughout your environment, with metrics that go down to the request level.

  • Collect and aggregate logs
  • Dashboard
  • Graphs and charts
  • Alerts
  • Reports

A customizable dashboard offers graphs and charts you can use to visualize performance. The time shift feature allows you to change the time period a particular chart shows helping you to spot performance concerns more easily. If you don’t want to build your own dashboard then you can use one of the prebuilt templates instead.

Create alerts to notify you about security events in your environments. The software sends alerts by Slack, PagerDuty, Microsoft Teams, and other Webhook-compatible services so that you always receive the latest information. If you wish to create a report then you can convert the dashboard into one and export it in PNG format.

Loggly is a great solution for enterprises that require an agentless tool that can handle data from almost any log source. The free version supports a single user. If you require more users, paid versions start at $48 (£37.48) per month for the Standard version, which supports up to three users. You can start the 14-day free trial here.

  • Lives in the cloud, allowing syslogs servers to scale regardless of onsite infrastructure

  • Setup is easy, no lengthy onboarding process

  • Can pull logs from cloud platforms such as AWS, Docker, etc

  • Data is immediately available for review and analysis

  • Offers a completely free version with limited retention

  • Would like to see a longer 30-day trial

Loggly Download 14-day FREE Trial

3. Datadog Log Management (FREE TRIAL)

Datadog is a cloud monitoring and log management solution that allows you to centrally collect log data from any source. With Datadog you can collect, search, and filter your logs to identify security events. Log data can be viewed through the dashboard with graphs and charts.

  • Central log collection
  • Dashboard
  • Graphs and charts
  • Filters
  • Log-processing pipelines
  • Alerts

The platform also gives you the option to create log-processing pipelines. Log-processing pipelines allow you to automatically process logs collected from integrations. For example, you can create a pipeline for NGINX or MongoDB to extract data automatically from those services.

Alerts tell you when a key service is experiencing performance issues. Alerts can be routed to external services like Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Hangouts Chat so that you and your team can process them more efficiently.

Datadog is a good solution for enterprises searching for a cloud-based log management solution with versatile log collection and rich data visualization options. The Log Management package starts at $1.27 (£0.99) per million log events, per month with seven-day retention. You can start the 14-day free trial here.

  • Has an excellent interface, easy to use, and highly customizable

  • Cloud-based SaaS product allows monitoring with no server deployments or onboarding costs

  • Supports auto-discovery that builds network topology maps on the fly

  • Changes made to the network are reflected in near real-time

  • Allows businesses to scale their monitoring efforts reliably through flexible pricing options

  • The trial is only two weeks long, would like to see a longer testing period

Datadog Start 14-day FREE Trial

4. ManageEngine Log360 (FREE TRIAL)

The ManageEngine Log360 package includes a log management system, a SIEM, a file integrity monitoring service, and a compliance reporting unit. This system includes agents that install on endpoints. These programs collect log messages from the operating system and by interacting with applications running on the device. There are also agents for cloud platforms, including AWS, Azure, and Salesforce.

  • Log collection on-site and from cloud platforms
  • Log message viewer
  • Threat intelligence feed
  • Automated threat detection
  • Alerts to service desk systems

An exceptional feature in this package is a threat intelligence feed, which is a service that is usually encountered in a SIEM. The system raises an alert if it detects a suspicious event. Alerts can be fed into service desk systems, including ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus, Jira, and Kayoko.

ManageEngine Log360 provides a source for compliance auditing and it provides compliance reporting for PCI DSS, GDPR, FISMA, HIPAA, SOX, and GLBA.

ManageEngine Log360 installs on Windows Server. It is able to collect logs from other operating systems and cloud platforms across the network. Log360 is available for a 30-day free trial.

  • Compliance reporting

  • File integrity monitoring

  • Account activity tracking

  • Alerts for suspicious activity

  • Log management

  • Doesn’t run on Linux

ManageEngine Log360 Download 30-day FREE TRIAL

5. ManageEngine EventLog Analyzer (FREE TRIAL)

ManageEngine EventLog Analyzer is a SIEM tool and Splunk alternative that you can use to monitor system logs. With ManageEngine EventLog Analyzer you can collect logs from over 700 sources with a mixture of agentless log collection, agent-based log collection, and log imports. Navigate through collected logs with customizable filters to identify the most significant security events.

  • Log collection and analysis
  • Filters
  • Real-time event correlation
  • Alerts
  • Compliance reports

Real-time event correlation analyses log data to identify attack patterns. The software comes with 30 preconfigured SIEM correlation rules to determine when an alert is raised. Correlation rules can also be customized enabling you to define other attack patterns and set trigger conditions that the platform will respond to.

Compliance reporting templates allow you to prepare for auditing for frameworks such as PCI DSS, HIPAA, FISMA, GDPR, SOX, and ISO 27001. Schedule reports to run automatically and then export compliance reports in HTML, PDF, and CSV to share with the rest of your team.

ManageEngine EventLog Analyzer is a great tool for enterprises that require a basic event log management tool. There is a free version that supports up to five log sources. Paid versions start at $595 (£464.64) for the Premium Edition. It is available on Windows and Linux. You can download a 30-day free trial.

  • Customizable dashboards that work great for network operation centers

  • Multiple alert channels ensure teams are notified across SMS, email, or app integration

  • Uses anomaly detection to assist technicians in their day-to-day operations

  • Supports file integrity monitoring that can act as an early warning system for ransomware, data theft, and permission access issues.

  • Lacks a mobile app

  • Can take time to fully explore all products offered by ManageEngine

ManageEngine EventLog Analyzer Download 30-day FREE TRIAL

6. Paessler PRTG Network Monitor (FREE TRIAL)

Paessler PRTG Network Monitor is a free network monitoring tool that also provides log monitoring. With Paessler PRTG Network Monitor you can use out-of-the-box sensors to collect log data. Sensors display performance data as numerical values and dials so you can monitor live data and historical performance data efficiently.

  • Log monitoring
  • Out-of-the-box sensors
  • Windows Event log sensor
  • Syslog Receiver sensor
  • Alerts
  • Automated responses

One sensor that’s useful for log management is the Windows Event Log Sensor, which you can use to monitor Windows log files, including system and application logs. Another valuable sensor is the Syslog Receiver Sensor, which allows you to monitor the number of received syslog messages per second, number of warning messages per second, number of error messages per second, and more.

With threshold-based alerts, you can configure Paessler PRTG Network Monitor to send you notifications whenever a key parameter is exceeded. The system can send notifications as email, SMS messages, push notifications, Slack messages, SNMP traps, or automatically respond by executing HTTP actions or programs.

Paessler PRTG Network Monitor is an excellent choice for SMEs that need a low-cost log management solution. The Freeware version supports up to 100 sensors. If you require more sensors you can upgrade to a paid version. Paid versions start at $1,750 (£1,367) for 500 sensors. It is available on Windows and Mac. You can start the 30-day free trial.

  • A flexible platform that allows businesses to expand their monitoring capabilities easily

  • Pricing is based on usage, making it a scalable platform for both small and large networks

  • Can alert via a number of different mediums, ensuring the right teams are in the loop

  • The same platform can be used to set up internal monitoring of networks, applications, and user activity

  • PRTG is a feature dense platform that may require time invested to fully utilize all of its features

Paessler PRTG Start 30-day FREE Trial

7. Sumo Logic

Sumo Logic is a SaaS-based log management tool that you can use to monitor services located on-premises and in the cloud. The platform comes with a range of integrations for services like AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, Kubernetes, and Docker, enabling it to fit with your existing tools and services.

  • Log collection
  • Dashboard
  • Graphs and charts
  • Threat intelligence
  • Real-time alerts
  • Integrations

Dashboards, equipped with graphs, charts, and predictive analytics enable you to see a comprehensive view of security events, making it easier to identify and resolve issues when they occur. If you discover a problem, you can use machine learning-driven root cause analysis to identify the origin.

Threat intelligence highlights Indicators of Compromise (IOC) in real-time so you can identify threats to your infrastructure faster. Anomaly detection helps to identify performance anomalies and real-time alerts notify you about threats so that you can take action to resolve them quickly.

Sumo Logic is one of the most reliable SaaS-based Splunk alternatives that’s easy to deploy. Pricing starts at $3.00 (£2.34) per GB of logs for the Essentials version, which includes log analytics, dashboards, and real-time alerting. You can start the 30-day free trial from this link here.

  • Great dashboard visualizations, highly customizable

  • Uses AI to automatically group suspicious events for analysis

  • Uses intelligent alerting to reduce duplicate notifications

  • Has a steep learning curve when compared to other products

  • Integrations and initial onboarding can be complex

8. Sematext Logs

Sematext Logs is a log management tool that you can use to collect logs from your infrastructure. Logs are searchable with basic query syntax you can use to identify particular events. With Sematext Logs, you can create custom dashboards to monitor performance trends in real-time.

  • Log data collection
  • Custom dashboards
  • Graphs and charts
  • Reports
  • Real-time alerts

When creating a dashboard, you can go to the Reports pane to begin creating reports to collect specific metrics to monitor. Dashboards come with graphs and charts to help you visualize performance and security issues. Real-time alerts automatically notify you by email, Slack, or PagerDuty when certain threshold conditions have been reached.

Sematext Logs is one of the top affordable log management solutions on the market that gives you complete control over your monitoring experience. Pricing starts at $50 (£39.03) per month for the Logs package. You can start the 30-day free trial here.

  • Uses Elasticsearch for flexible query options

  • Supports data outside of just event logs such as SNMP reports

  • Supports threshold-based alerts, ideal for maintaining SLAs.

  • Has a freeware version for testing

  • Relies on Kibana for data visualization

9. LogRhythm NextGen SIEM Platform

LogRhythm NextGen SIEM Plattform is a log analysis tool that comes with the LogRhythm XDR stack. The LogRhythm XDR stack is a mixture of three tools; LogRhythm AnalytiX, LogRhythm DetectX, and LogRhythm RespondX.

  • Centralized log storage
  • Custom dashboards
  • Structured and unstructured search
  • AI engine
  • Alarms
  • Integrated SOAR

AnalytiX centrally stores log data that you can navigate with structured and unstructured searches. Log data can be also viewed through custom dashboards that include visualization options for deeper visibility. An AI engine analyses the logs to identify potential threats. The engine comes with over 900 customizable correlation rule sets out-of-the-box.

DetectX provides security analytics that detects security issues and trigger alarms. The tool automatically recognizes threats with machine learning which identifies problematic patterns and highlights them to the user. The integrated SOAR solution RespondX enables you to automatically perform remediation tasks after the system detects a threat.

LogRhythm NextGen SIEM Platform is a choice worth examining if you’re looking for a solution to automate the log management process. However, you need to contact the company directly for pricing info to request a quote. Available on-premises and in the cloud. Schedule a demo from this link here.

  • Uses simple wizards to setup log collection and other security tasks, making it a more beginner-friendly tool

  • Sleek interface, highly customizable, and visually appealing

  • Leverages artificial intelligence and machine learning for behavior analysis

  • Would like to see a trial option

  • Cross-platform support would be a welcomed feature

10. LogDNA

LogDNA is a free log management software that you can use to collect and monitor log data. With LogDNA you can use exclusion rules to reduce the volume of log data you need to monitor, making it easier to identify the significant security events. Visualization options like charts and graphs allow you to monitor log data trends from a glance.

  • Collect and monitor log data
  • Exclusion rules
  • Graphs and charts
  • Alerts
  • Usage reporting
  • Team controls

Alerts notify you about system events immediately. The platform integrates with over services such as PagerDuty, Slack, Webhook, and other APIs, so you can receive alerts to wherever you and your team are most active. Usage reporting provides you with an update on your log usage so you can see when you need to manage resource consumption.

Team controls provide you with multiple features you can use to support an entire team. For example, role-based access control enables you to limit access to sensitive data, and SSO/SAML user authentication makes sure that only authorized users can access protected data.

LogDNA is a good solution for organizations that want to reduce manual log processing. The Free version supports a single user with unlimited hosts and sources. Paid versions start at $1.50 (£1.17) /GB per month for up to five users. It is available on Windows, macOS, and Linux. You can start the 14-day free trial from this link here.

  • Minimalistic interface helps highlight key insights

  • Powerful exclusion rules are easy to build and customize

  • Vast API library for integrations into other tools and messaging platforms

  • The trial is only 14-days long

  • Reporting could be made easier, specifically when building custom reports

Choosing a Splunk Alternative

If you like Splunk but you find it’s missing a feature you could benefit from, there’s no reason why you couldn’t augment its capabilities with another tool.

Out of the Splunk alternatives listed above, SolarWinds Security Event Manager and DataDog stand out as some of the top tools on account of their state-of-the-art GUI’s and excellent visualization options. We highly recommend researching multiple tools before committing to a purchase to ensure you adopt a solution that closely matches your requirements.

  • Elastic Stack
  • LogDNA
  • Graylog
  • Grafana
  • Fluentd
  • Loki