Are you struggling to monitor your application performance monitoring metrics amid the log data generated by your system? A multitude of errors, warnings, and other essential messages constantly flood your logs, making it nearly impossible to monitor your system's health effectively. If you want to compare log monitoring tools, this article will provide invaluable insights to help you make informed decisions.
And what better way to tackle log management than with Alerty's solution? Their free APM tool offers a valuable ally in your quest to compare log monitoring tools, seamlessly integrating with your existing systems to enhance your monitoring capabilities. This tool helps you proactively monitor and manage your logs and simplifies your log analysis, enabling you to make data-driven decisions confidently.
In computing, logs are records of events, typically including a timestamp and event details. They are commonly used to troubleshoot issues, monitor system performance, and identify security concerns. Software programs and systems generate log files containing information about the:
Various types of logs exist, such as:
Logs can be stored in various formats, including plain text files, databases, and specialized log management systems. These logs play a crucial role in:
They offer valuable insights into the behavior of applications, servers, and networks, helping organizations optimize their operations and enhance security practices.
Logs are the lifeblood of performance monitoring solutions, providing real-time visibility into the health and performance of applications and infrastructure. Analyzing logs generated by applications and systems, these tools help organizations detect issues, troubleshoot problems, and optimize performance to deliver an exceptional user experience.
Regardless of your network’s size, log monitoring is a crucial entryway to preventing, identifying, and addressing issues on your network devices. The main idea of log monitoring is to help you analyze log data from a centralized server. Instead of simply using your devices’ preinstalled monitoring and troubleshooting capabilities, a unified approach to network management can identify threats fast, and keep your business running.
Because event logs come from a variety of sources, a log monitoring server helps you consolidate your log data into a single management system. When you monitor network logs, you can identify issues with network devices before they cause significant downtime or worse, compromise security.
Network log monitoring can monitor a diverse range of event types. Your log monitoring server also records data from any events occurring on your network devices, moving between your network devices, and coming into your network from outside sources. To identify performance issues, log monitoring allows you to:
To identify security issues, event logs allow you to see who has accessed the data. Your monitoring server can also keep track of firewall activity so you can quickly detect threats to your devices.
Any event created by network-layer devices within your IT infrastructure can become an event log. But collecting logs is only the first step—once your log monitoring tools have centralized event log collection, your IT team can identify and troubleshoot issues.
Every interaction on every device creates an event log, so the most effective log monitoring tools sort logs into intuitive log files with a user-friendly database format. Successful log monitoring requires a keen eye for performance issues—which event logs indicate a broader issue within your network? Log monitoring servers can also help file log data and flag potential issues using performance thresholds.
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Reviewing and monitoring event logs in your system and applications may seem insignificant, especially when everything runs smoothly. The ability to monitor log files effectively has massive consequences for organizations. When issues arise, teams need to be able to review logs to pinpoint specific events and instances promptly. Monitoring log files allows troubleshooting issues quickly, ensuring secure systems and a seamless experience for end users.
With robust log monitoring, teams can monitor the performance and availability of systems and applications or offer a stellar customer experience. Due to the distributed nature of cloud applications, this is incredibly complex and risky. Robust log monitoring is crucial for organizations to stay on top of their business with so much data flowing.
Alerty is a cloud monitoring service for developers and early-stage startups, offering application performance monitoring, database monitoring, and incident management. It supports technologies like:
Alerty monitors databases such as:
It features quick incident management and Real User Monitoring (RUM) to optimize user experience. Its Universal Service Monitoring covers dependencies like:
Alerty uses AI to simplify setup, providing a cost-effective solution compared to competitors. It is designed for ease of use, allowing quick setup, and integrates with tools like Sentry, making it ideal for developers and small teams needing efficient, affordable monitoring.
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Logentries is a cloud-based log management platform that makes any computer-generated log data accessible to developers, IT engineers, and business analysis groups of any size. Its easy onboarding process ensures that any business team can quickly and effectively start understanding their log data from day one.
Grafana Loki is an open-source, horizontally scalable, multi-tenant log aggregation system developed by Grafana Labs. Loki was inspired by Prometheus and was designed to be cost-effective and easy to operate. Loki utilizes label-based indexing, where logs are indexed based on associated key-value pairs (labels) rather than their full content.
This approach significantly reduces storage requirements and accelerates the ingestion of large log volumes. Log data retrieval is faster as it only involves searching through labels, not the entire text. This design choice limits full-text search capabilities. While Loki allows searching within labels, it cannot perform arbitrary searches across the entire log content.
The logging solution offered by Logz.io is built for scalability and enables its users to monitor logs for simplifying security. Their solution offers a selection of pre-built dashboards that give working examples to those new to setting up impressive Kibana dashboards. Regarding drawbacks, Logz.io was said to not be as fast on performance time as other proprietary solutions (such as Humio) by some users who had trialled the platform in recent years.
Graylog is a free and open-source log management tool that supports in-depth log collection and analysis. Used by teams in Network Security, IT Ops and DevOps, you can count on Graylog’s ability to discern any potential risks to security, lets you follow compliance rules, and helps to understand the root cause of any particular error or problem your apps are experiencing.
Splunk’s log management tool focuses on enterprise customers who need concise tools for searching, diagnosing and reporting any events surrounding data logs. Splunk’s software is built to support the process of indexing and deciphering logs of any type, whether:
As a full-stack observability platform, Middleware's log monitoring solution helps developers to collect, monitor, and analyze log data from applications, cloud services, and on-premises systems in real-time and subsequently aid them in troubleshooting performance and security issues before they affect users.
Regarding pricing, Middleware offers a free forever developer account that grants access to all features within monthly limits. For paid users, log monitoring costs $0.3 per 1 GB/month for up to 10 GB logs.
Stackify's Retrace platform enables its users to monitor applications proactively. Engineers across both QA and production environments use it. The platform includes APM in addition to log management. For a limited time, it is currently offering new users the chance to explore the premium offering of its code review tool, Prefix.
Log Harvestor is a newer solution for log management that recently debuted on Product Hunt. As this platform is such a newcomer to the log management market, they have launched a roadmap to keep users updated on all upcoming developments coming to Log Harvestor soon.
Backtrace’s log management solution has primarily been built with game developers in mind. As a tool, Backtrace can be integrated with existing tools you already use and adds relevant context embedded side-by-side for improved troubleshooting of all your error logs.
If Docker log management is your primary requirement, then Dockter’s low-overhead open-source solution may provide exactly what you need to solve this use case. Dockter can offer many of the features that other solutions previously cited boast, namely:
Elysium Analytics allows users to improve the visibility of malicious user event signals and their ability to triage data accurately. Their solution is used by those in DevOps, IT-Ops and SecOps for ingesting structured and semi-structured data. Elysium Analytics compresses ingested data by 70% to alleviate concerns that would have previously arisen for users who had to use an additional third-party data storage solution for archiving their uncompressed data.
Enterprise users who require large-scale logging may find Humio's log management platform to offer the scalability required for effective data management. Unlike other platforms, Humio's dashboards can also harness Falcon data so that users can correlate and integrate it with the rest of their system data.
Bulletlog offers a data unification platform for collecting application logs, pinpointing debug issues, and setting alerts. This Regiment.tech backed platform can also be used for simply tracking errors and offers users an alternative to hosting open-source logging software.
If you require a cloud-based log management tool that continually scans in the background for anomalies, Zebrium may be the right solution to capture your next software error. The Zebrium platform recently launched its service as an on-premise VPC-deployable offering that can use the same machine learning technology from their original platform.
Netwitness’s log tracking software allows users to gain visibility and experience the benefits of SIEM and Open XDR within a single platform. This software solution is also classified as a forensics tool due to its strength in helping its users to demonstrate regulatory compliance for various security initiatives (including CMMC).
Exambeam is another service provider that allows its users to access log search features, SIEM, and XDR, in addition to threat detection, investigation, and response (TDIR). If you are new to the term “data lake,” then be rest assured that by using Exambeam, you can still benefit from features including:
ALog ConVerter is a server log monitoring solution that doesn’t require agents to send logs from various devices. It is essential to monitor servers and server logs over time so that you can see if your server's performance is degrading over time or is showing signs that a crash is imminent.
Motadata’s event log scraping tool provides users actionable insights across networks and infrastructure. Event log analysis often proves itself to be invaluable in the centralization of information, audit, warning, error, and failure events that are being recorded across distributed system architecture.
CloudPhysics offers a log management application as part of their broader platform, which specializes in providing analytics for virtual data centers. This collaborative intelligence platform offers extensive support options and includes user access to a video tutorial channel and a well-maintained knowledge base.
Corner Bowl event log manager provides a solution for SIEM, log management and uptime monitoring that has multiple options for support, including phone-based sessions. A platform such as Corner Bowl’s solution which is cross-compatible with a variety of use cases can prove itself to be of better value in the long term over solutions that only offer one service.
Logmatic is an extensive log management tool that integrates seamlessly with any language or stack. Logmatic works equally well with front-end and back-end log data and provides a painless online dashboard for tapping into valuable insights and facts of what is happening within your server environment.
Logstash from Elasticsearch is one of the most renowned open-source log management tools for managing, processing, and transporting your log data and events. Logstash is a data processor that can combine and transform data from multiple sources simultaneously then send it over to your favorite log management platform, such as Elasticsearch.
Sumo Logic is a unified logs and metrics platform that helps you analyze your data in real-time using machine learning. Sumo Logic can quickly depict the root cause of any particular error or event, and it can be set up to be constantly on guard as to what is happening to your apps in real time. Sumo Logic’s strong point is its ability to work with data rapidly, removing the need for external data analysis and management tools.
Papertrail is a snazzy-hosted log management tool that aggregates, searches, and analyzes any type of log files, system logs, or basic text log files. Its real-time features allow for developers and engineers to monitor live happenings for apps and servers as they are happening. Papertrail offers seamless integration with services like Slack, Librato, and Email to help you set up alerts for trends and any anomalies.
Fluentd collects events from various data sources and writes them to files, RDBMS, NoSQL, IaaS, SaaS, Hadoop, etc. Fluentd helps you unify your logging infrastructure. Fluentd’s flagship feature is an extensive library of plugins that provide extended support and functionality for anything related to log and data management within a concise developer environment.
Syslog is an open-source log management tool that helps engineers and DevOps to collect log data from a large variety of sources to process them and eventually send them over to a preferred log analysis tool. With Syslog, you can effortlessly collect, diminish, categorize and correlate your log data from your existing stack and push it forward for analysis.
Rsyslog is a blazing-fast system built for log processing. It offers great performance benchmarks, tight security features, and a modular design for custom modifications. Rsyslog has grown from a singular logging system to parse and sort logs from an extended range of sources, which it can then transform and provide an output to be used in dedicated log analysis software.
LOGalyze is a simple-to-use log collection and analysis system with low operational costs, a centralized system for log management and is capable of gathering log data from extended sources of operational systems. LOGalyze does predictive event detection in real-time while giving system admins and management personnel the right tools for indexing and searching through piles of data effortlessly.
Sentry is a modern platform for managing, logging, and aggregating any potential errors within your apps and software. Sentry’s state-of-the-art algorithm helps teams detect any potential errors within the app infrastructure that could be critical to production operations.
Sentry essentially helps teams to avoid the hassle of having to deal with a problem that’s too late to fix and instead uses its technology to help inform teams about any potential rollbacks or fixes that would sustain the health of the software.
Apache Flume is an elegantly designed service for helping its users to stream data directly into Hadoop. Its core architecture is based on streaming data flows — these can be used to ingest data from various sources to directly link up with Hadoop for further analysis and storage purposes. Flume’s Enterprise customers use the service to stream data into Hadoop’s HDFS; generally, this data includes:
Cloudlytics is a SaaS startup designed to improve the analysis of log data, billing data, and cloud services. It is targeted at AWS Cloud services, such as CloudFront and S3 CloudTrail. Using Cloudlytics, customers can get in-depth insights and pattern discovery based on the data provided by those services. With three management modules, Cloudlytics gives its users the flexibility to choose from monitoring resources in their environment, analyzing monthly bills, or analyzing AWS logs.
Blesk's network and event log monitoring tool is an on-premise ITSM suite that includes an event log manager. Its features do not monitor network traffic or application performance metrics. To get started with Blesk, you will need to ensure that you can meet the following minimum system requirements:
Wrble enables its users to ingest historical data by using its APIs to backfill valuable logs. The platform can also be used to ingest data across mobile, web, and IoT devices. On its basic plan, the platform offers limited API access and one-month raw retention for up to five users.
i-Vertix caters to users who require a centralized logging solution that can be analyzed in real-time for further improved data accuracy. Centralized logging benefits engineers who want to view a single source of truth on the status of their systems and operating environments.
LogFusion Pro is another real-time log management tool that enables users to benefit from customer highlighting rules, advanced filtering, and search. LogFusion Pro has recently launched a new beta of their other service offering, DisplayFusion, and there is ongoing support to translate the existing LogFusion platform into 63 different language variations.
LogIQ is used for large-scale log ingestion and allows users to gain data EPS control to increase the quality and relevance of their data. Based on the sizeable minimum usage fee, small businesses may not find this platform their first choice as a log management solution. For enterprise customers who need to meet large data retention and ingestion requirements, this platform may fulfill their needs more closely.
Papertrail provides cloud-based log management for Sysadmins and DevOps that require seamless aggregation of their log files. This SolarWinds-owned logging application can:
If using SQL querying is a significant feature benefit, Logtail may offer the logging solution most suitable for your engineering team. Logtail is a relatively newer player in the log management market than many other solutions already named in this article.
Octopussy is a Perl-based, open-source log management tool that can do alerting and reporting, and visualization of data. Its basic back-end functionality is analyzing logs, generating reports based on log data, and alerting the administration to relevant information.
Today’s environment of IT departments can provide a layer of challenges regarding truly in-depth understanding of why events occur and what logs are reporting. With thousands of log entries from a plethora of sources and with the demand for logs to be analyzed real-time, there can arise difficulties in knowing how to manage all of the data in a centralized environment.
NXLog strives to provide the tools for concise analysis of logs from various platforms, sources, and formats. It can collect logs from files in various formats and receive logs from the network remotely over UDP, TCP, or TLS/SSL on all supported platforms.
NetIQ is an enterprise software company that focuses on products related to application management, software operations, and security and log management resources. The Sentinel Log Manager is a bundle of software applications that allow for businesses to take advantage of features like:
Sentinel’s cost-effective and flexible log management platforms make it easy for businesses to audit their logs in real time for possible security risks or application threats that could upset production software.
XpoLog seeks new and innovative ways to help its customers better understand and master their IT data. With their leading technology platform, XpoLog focuses on assisting customers to analyze their IT data using unique patents and affordable algorithms for all operation sizes. The platform drastically reduces time to resolution and provides a wealth of intelligence, trends, and insights into enterprise IT environments.
EventTracker provides its customers with business-optimal services that help to correlate and identify system changes that potentially affect IT departments' overall performance, security, and availability. EventTracker uses SIEM to create a robust log management environment that can detect changes through concise monitoring tools and provides USB security protection to protect IT infrastructure from emerging security attacks.
EventTracker SIEM collates millions of security and log events and provides actionable results in dynamic dashboards so you can pinpoint indicators of a compromise while maintaining archives to meet regulatory retention requirements.
LogRhythm’s logging analysis tool enables users to scale their data collection and analytics activities. LogRhythm also allows users to explore their NextGen SIEM platform for users with more demanding security requirements.
PagerDuty helps developers, ITOps, DevOps, and businesses protect their brand reputation and customer experiences. An incident resolution platform, PagerDuty automates your resolutions and provides full-stack visibility and delivers actionable insights for better customer experiences.
Loggly’s server log management platform is another SolarWinds-backed solution for ingesting data from various sources. Loggly can be used across a large number of use cases, including for:
McAfee is a household name in IT and network security and has been known to provide the latest technology-optimized tools for businesses and corporations of all sizes. The McAfee Enterprise log manager is an automated log management and analysis suite for all types of logs:
The software’s in-built features can identify and validate logs for authenticity—a necessary feature for compliance reasons. Organizations have been using McAfee to ensure that their infrastructure complies with the latest security policies. McAfee Enterprise complies with more than 240 standards.
Prometheus is a systems and service monitoring system that collects metrics from configured targets at specified intervals, evaluates rule expressions, displays results, and triggers alerts when pre-defined conditions are met. With customers like DigitalOcean, SoundCloud, Docker, CoreOS, and others, the Prometheus repository is a great example of how open-source projects can compete with leading technology and innovate in systems and log management.
Log monitoring aids businesses in complying with various laws and regulations, including GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI. It provides a cost-effective means to meet critical regulatory requirements. Commonly tracked activities include login attempts, account management, directory access, system activities, and policy alterations.
Log monitoring enables quick incident detection and resolution, preventing impacts on end users.
Monitoring logs identify code vulnerabilities, enhance program performance by identifying weak performance areas, debug and evaluate application health, and detect installation and runtime issues.
Log monitoring optimizes system performance by identifying bottlenecks and ineffective configurations. It involves real-time health monitoring, identifying performance or configuration problems, and monitoring operational goals and SLAs.
Unified log monitoring benefits cloud operators and architects, promoting rapid event response and issue identification and effective collaboration among stakeholders.
Teams can enhance their IT automation efforts and execute processes and responses more precisely by gaining visibility into essential system metrics.
Network devices like firewalls, switches, routers, and load balancers generate logs that must be monitored. Log monitoring tools can help aggregate and analyze network logs to identify trends, anomalies, and potential security threats. By monitoring these logs, administrators can ensure the network operates efficiently and securely.
Log monitoring for infrastructure tracks on-premise and cloud solutions such as virtual machines, platforms like AWS or Azure, and container platforms like:
Logs from these different infrastructure components can provide valuable insights into performance, resource utilization, and security risks. Log monitoring tools can help centralize and analyze logs from various infrastructure components to ensure optimal performance and reliability.
Log monitoring for applications typically encompasses two types of applications:
Application monitoring is important because application performance can affect the customer experience. For example, customers might leave the site or app if services are down. Databases are considered applications, as well. Log monitoring tools can provide visibility into application logs to identify performance bottlenecks, errors, and user experience issues.
Businesses are legally required to keep certain types of data. To remain compliant, they need to store log data for a certain amount of time. That way, they have a historical record to review should any incidents arise. Some industries, such as financial or healthcare, are subject to regulations such as:
These regulations, which are legal obligations, establish compliance guidelines related to the traceability of transactions, which must be ensured. Log monitoring is an essential part of that. Log monitoring tools can help organizations ensure compliance by collecting, storing, and analyzing logs to meet regulatory requirements.
When choosing a log monitoring solution, the first important consideration is centralized data. With logs coming from various sources in different formats, having a single centralized platform to view all logs makes it much easier to manage and analyze log data. A centralized view allows you to parse through quickly:
Effective log monitoring doesn't stop at just identifying error conditions and patterns; it also requires actionable alerting capabilities. This helps IT operations teams quickly respond to critical alerts, reducing downtime and improving overall system performance.
While cost shouldn't be the only factor in choosing a log monitoring solution, it is vital to select a platform that offers a good return on investment. Conducting a cost analysis of the solutions available can help you understand the trade-offs and benefits each platform offers.
For example, Alerty uses AI to simplify the setup process, reducing costs significantly. Choosing a cost-friendly solution ensures that small teams and businesses don't have to compromise on application monitoring due to budget constraints.
Log monitoring is just one piece of the observability puzzle. To gain the most insights into your applications and systems, it's essential to choose a platform that offers a comprehensive observability solution.
A full-suite observability platform includes not just log monitoring but also metrics, traces, and other monitoring capabilities that together provide a holistic view of your applications. Having a total observability solution ensures that you have all the tools necessary to monitor and optimize your application performance effectively.
Alerty is a cloud monitoring service designed especially for developers and early-stage startups, providing a holistic approach to application performance monitoring, database monitoring, and incident management. This platform supports an array of cutting-edge technologies like:
By leveraging Alerty, developers can identify and address issues before they escalate, ensuring seamless user experience and functionality.
Alerty goes beyond application performance monitoring and offers robust database monitoring functionalities. The platform is compatible with databases such as:
This comprehensive approach to monitoring ensures that developers have a clear understanding of their database performance, allowing for preemptive maintenance and optimization to avoid potential issues down the line.
Alerty's incident management features enable quick response to potential issues, minimizing downtime and ensuring a smooth user experience. Real User Monitoring (RUM) capabilities allow developers to delve into user behavior and optimize user experience based on actual data. By leveraging these features, developers can proactively address performance issues and enhance their applications' overall performance and functionality.
One of the standout features of Alerty is its universal service monitoring, which extends beyond the confines of the application and database to cover essential dependencies like:
By providing a comprehensive view of the entire ecosystem, Alerty enables developers to identify potential weak points and optimize performance across the board. This comprehensive approach ensures that applications run seamlessly and efficiently, meeting user expectations consistently.
Alerty leverages AI to simplify monitoring setup, providing developers with a cost-effective solution that reduces the complexities typically associated with application performance monitoring.
By streamlining the setup process, Alerty enables quick adoption and integration, allowing developers to focus on building exceptional applications. This AI-driven approach sets Alerty apart from its competitors, offering a more efficient and affordable monitoring solution for developers and small teams.
Alerty is designed for ease of use, enabling quick setup and integration with a range of tools commonly used by developers. By seamlessly integrating with tools like Sentry, Alerty ensures that developers can easily incorporate monitoring into their existing workflows. This seamless integration, combined with Alerty's user-friendly interface, makes it an ideal choice for developers and small teams seeking efficient and affordable monitoring solutions.
Alerty is a robust cloud monitoring service that offers a comprehensive suite of monitoring tools for developers and early-stage startups. With its focus on ease of use, affordability, and comprehensive monitoring capabilities, Alerty is poised to become a go-to solution for developers looking to optimize their application performance and user experience.