Graylog started in 2009 as an open-source side project by German developer Lennart Koopmann, who built his own log management tool after finding commercial alternatives too expensive, and it grew into a company co-founded with Hass Chapman in 2012.
The platform now spans a free, source-available Open edition and paid Enterprise and Security tiers built on the same log ingestion and search engine, serving both IT operations and security operations use cases.
Key Features
Graylog centralizes logs from servers, applications, network devices and security tools into a searchable, indexed store, with dashboards, custom queries and alerting built on top.
The Security tier adds SIEM capabilities such as correlation rules, threat intelligence integration and risk scoring aimed at reducing alert fatigue for lean security teams.
Pricing
Graylog Open is free and source-available for teams that want self-managed log collection and search without a subscription.
Graylog Enterprise starts at roughly 15,000 dollars per year and Graylog Security starts at roughly 18,000 dollars per year, both billed based on daily data volume or annual consumption rather than per user.
Key Features
Centralized log ingestion — Collects and normalizes logs from servers, applications, network devices and security tools into one searchable index.
Custom search and dashboards — A purpose-built query language and configurable dashboards for exploring log data and building operational views.
Alerting engine — Rule-based alerting that notifies teams of anomalies, outages or security events as they happen.
SIEM correlation and threat intelligence — In the Security tier, correlation rules and threat intelligence feeds help detect and prioritize genuine security incidents.
Role-based access control — Granular permissions so different teams can access only the log streams and dashboards relevant to them.
Volume-based licensing — Enterprise and Security plans are priced by daily ingest volume, aligning cost with actual data usage rather than seat count.
Archiving and retention controls — Configurable data retention and archiving to meet compliance and audit requirements.
Open, source-available core — A free edition built on the same core engine as the paid tiers, allowing teams to start without a licensing commitment.
Pros & Cons
Pros
Genuinely capable free Open edition rather than a crippled trial version
Volume-based pricing can be cost-effective for data-heavy but analyst-lean teams
Built on familiar, widely understood search technology (Elasticsearch/OpenSearch)
Clear upgrade path from free log management into full SIEM without switching platforms
Cons
Enterprise and Security pricing is not published and requires a sales quote
Self-managing the Open edition at scale requires real infrastructure and Elasticsearch/OpenSearch expertise
Smaller analyst and integration ecosystem than incumbents like Splunk or QRadar
Volume-based pricing can become expensive quickly for organizations with high daily log volume
Pricing
Graylog Open Free N/A (source-available, self-hosted)
Graylog Enterprise From $15,000/year Annual, billed by data volume
Graylog Security From $18,000/year Annual, billed by data volume
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Graylog free to use
Yes. Graylog Open is a free, source-available edition that provides log collection, storage, search and basic analysis, though it lacks the advanced alerting, SIEM and support features of the paid tiers.
How much does Graylog Enterprise cost
Graylog Enterprise starts at roughly 15,000 US dollars per year, billed based on daily data volume or annual consumption rather than per user.
Is Graylog a SIEM tool
Graylog Security is Graylog's dedicated SIEM product, adding correlation, threat intelligence and risk scoring on top of the core log management platform used by Graylog Open and Enterprise.
Who founded Graylog
Graylog was founded by Lennart Koopmann, who started the open-source Graylog2 project in 2009, with Hass Chapman joining as co-founder in 2012 to help build the company.
What is Graylog built on
Graylog's search and storage layer is built on Elasticsearch and OpenSearch, with a custom query language, dashboards and alerting layered on top.
Who competes with Graylog
Graylog's main competitors include Splunk, Elastic Security, IBM QRadar, LogRhythm and the open-source ELK/OpenSearch stack.